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CATECHISM 



HISTORY OF IRELAND : 

ANCIENT AND MODERN. 

■ 
BY WILLIAM J. O'NEILL DAUNT, ESQ. 

AUTHOR OF "SAINTS AND SINNERS." 



BOSTON: 
PUBLISHED BY PATRICK DONAHOJE, 

No. 1 Spring Larm. 

1850. 



.1)33 









ADVERTISEMENT 



THE AMERICAN EDITION 



The following pages are the production of 
an able and enthusiastic young Irish patriot. 
He has served Ireland well with voice and 
pen, and the Father of his country as a con- 
fidential secretary. It is, therefore, in every 
respect a national work, and the very best 
key we have ever seen to the study of the 
wonderful history of that nation. Its brevity 
omits nothing of real importance which could 
be thus glanced at, while the admirable con- 
nection of the whole charms the memory from 
forgetfulness of any portion of its contents. 

This well-timed work was not more needed 
in Ireland than it is in America. We are, 
with very, very few exceptions, infants in the 



4 ADVERTISEMENT. 

study of Irish history — the most interesting 
of any relating to Western Europe. Let us 
begin with the beginning. It is full time our 
fellow-citizens should know something of an 
island which has been a fruitful source of 
population and benefit to the new world — 
from whose children millions around and 
among them are descended, and from which 
the tide of emigration still sets steadily 
towards these shores. To those emigrants 
themselves this Catechism will be most wel- 
come ; and the more thoroughly they study its 
pages, the farther they will advance to the 
perfection of all earthly philosophy — the 
knowledge of themselves. 



PREFACE 



I intend this little Catechism for a school- 
book. I hope it may help to train up Irish 
children " in the way in which they should go." 
I have often been thoroughly disgusted at the 
deceptive character of those quasi-historical 
abstracts which are put into the hands of our 
youth, and which are calculated to create in 
their minds a contempt for their own brave 
and gallant Celtic forefathers, a political idol- 
atry of England, and a total misconception of 
the real, substantial interests of their native 
land. 

It was necessarily impossible, in a compila- 
tion so limited in extent as the present, to 
enter into full details of historical incidents. 
The outlines of our national annals are all 
that could be given ; accompanied, sometimes, 
1* 



6 PREFACE. 

by a brief word of comment, meant to guide 
the youthful student with respect to the moral 
of his country's history. School-books about 
Ireland have too often been designed to train 
their readers to look through English spec- 
tacles at Irish transactions. I have looked at 
those transactions through an Irish medium; 
I have sought to extend, to the rising genera- 
tion, that teaching which has been dissem- 
inated with such potent efficacy among their 
seniors, by my able friends who conduct the 
Nation newspaper ; being deeply convinced 
that the welfare of the country, and the cause 
of political truth, can alone be promoted and 
secured by infusing into the hearts of its in- 
habitants the sacred principle of nationality. 

Of religious differences, except so far as 
they have affected politics, I have said nothing 
whatever. Some of the best and warmest 
Irish patriots are, and have been, Protestants. 
There is nothing in any Christian creed to 
prevent its professors from working honestly 
and efficiently for their country. 



PREFACE. 7 

I have not screened the faults and follies of 
our ancestors. Their great and noble qual- 
ities were too often neutralized by their sin of 
mutual dissension. It is true that in this 
respect they were not worse than the con- 
temporary inhabitants of other lands ; but the 
evils arising from internal differences have, 
from peculiar circumstances, been more griev- 
ous and enduring in Ireland than almost in 
any other country. It is time that party 
should be merged in nationality. 

There exists not on the surface of the earth 
a nation richer than our own in all the moral 
and physical resources of greatness, pros- 
perity, and happiness ; or more fertile in all 
the materials of self-government. Every page 
of our history impresses the conviction, that, 
if intestine divisions were abandoned ; if men 
would use the energies and powers God has 
given them for the common benefit, instead 
of for the purposes of faction ; if, instead of a 
miserable strife to exalt Whig over Tory, or 
Tory over Whig, all parties would unite to 



8 PREFACE. 

exalt Ireland, by restoring to her legislative 
freedom ; then we should see those great 
qualities, which now lie nearly dormant, called 
forth into active exercise, and productive of 
unnumbered blessings to our fatherland. 



W. J. O'NEILL DAUNT 



Kilcascan, County Cork, 
23d September, 1844. 



CATECHISM 

OF THE 

HISTORY OF IRELAND 



CHAPTER I. 

Of the Original Inhabitants of Ireland. 

Question. Whence was Ireland first peopled? 

Answer. There are many accounts of the 
origin of her earliest inhabitants ; the most proba- 
ble belief is, that Ireland was peopled by a colony 
of Phoenicians. 

Q. Who were the Phoenicians ? 

A. They were a branch of the great nation of 
the Scythians. 

Q. How did the early inhabitants divide Ire* 
land? 

A. Into five kingdoms. 

Q. Name them. 

A. Ulster, Leinster, Connaught, Munster, and 
Meath. 

Q. How were these five kingdoms governed ? 

A. Each by its own prince ; and the king of 
Meath was also paramount sovereign of all Ire- 
land. 

Q. Did these kingdoms descend from father to 
son by hereditary right? 

A. No ; the succession was regulated by the 
law of Tanistry 



10 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What was Tanistry ? 

A. Tanistry was a law which restricted the 
right of succession to the family of the prince, or 
chief; but any member of the family might be 
elected successor, as well as the eldest son. 

Q. What does tanist mean ? 

A. Tanist was the title borne by the elected 
successor, during the life of the reigning prince, 
or chief. 

Q. What qualities was it necessary that the 
tanist should possess ? 

A. He should be a knight, full twenty-five 
years ojd; his figure should be tall, noble, and 
free from blemish ; and he should prove his pedi- 
gree from the Milesians. 

Q. Was Tanistry a good custom ? 

A. No ; for the struggles of the different can- 
didates, to be elected, caused great warfare and 
bloodshed. 

Q. Where did the king-paramount of all Ire- 
land reside? 

A. At the palace of Tara, in Meath. 

Q. What was the ancient law of Ireland 
called ? 

A. The Brehon Law.* 

Q. What was most remarkable in the Brehon 
Law? 

A. The nearly total absence of capital pun- 
ishment. 

Q. How was murder punished ? 

A. By a money-fine, called an eric. 

Q. Had the lenity of the Brehon Law in that 
respect a good effect 1 

A. Not always : for the friends of the mur- 

* Brehiv is the modern Irish for a judge. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 11 

dered person often deemed the penalty inflicted 
by the law too slight ; and in avenging their own 
wrongs, bloody feuds and clan-battles often oc- 
curred. 

Q. How were men appointed to the office of 
brehon ? 

A. The office of brehon was hereditary in 
certain families. 

Q. Were the other great offices in Ireland, in 
like manner, restricted to certain families ? 

A. Yes ; in those days all great offices were 
thus restricted. 

Q. Can you state any ancient custom of those 
early times which still exists in Ireland? 

A. Yes; the custom of fostering. The chil- 
dren of the chiefs and nobles were always suckled 
by the wives of the tenants. 

Q. Was the link thus formed considered a 
strong one 1 

A. As strong as the tie of actual relationship. 
Nay, foster-brothers and foster-sisters often loved 
each other better than if they had been the chil- 
dren of the same parents. 

Q. Can you mention any other ancient cus- 
tom 1 

A. Yes ; that of gossipred. The chiefs and 
nobles frequently became godfathers to the chil- 
dren of their vassals and dependents. 

Q. Had these old customs any good effect 1 

A. They had : they helped in some degree to 
connect different classes in the bonds of affection 
with each other. 

Q. Are there any remarkable remains of early 
Irish buildings 1 

A. Yes ; there are fifty-two round towers in 
Ireland of a very high antiquity 



12 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What was the origin and purpose of those 
buildings ? 

A. Both their origin and purpose are unknown : 
there is, however, a rather probable opinion that 
they were intended for the fire-worship of the 
pagans, before the Christian religion was brought 
into Ireland. 

Q. Are there similar round towers in any other 
part of the British islands? 

A. No; excepting two which still remain in 
Scotland. 



CHAPTER II. 

The Irish Christian Church. 

Question. Who was the first Christian Bishop 
with local jurisdiction in Ireland ? 

Answer. Saint Palladius. 

Q. By whom was he appointed 1 

A. By Pope Celestine, in the year 430.* 

Q. Whence did the whole Irish nation receive 
its Christianity ? 

A. From Rome. 

Q. Who states these facts ? 

A. They are stated by many ancient historians 
of the highest credit ; namely, by Saint Prosper 
of Acquitaine, in the year 434; by Saint Colum- 
banus, an Irish prelate, A. D. 610 ; by the Abbot 
Cummian, another Irishman, in the year 650 ; by 

* The earliest chronicler of this fact is Saint Prosper, of 
Acquitaine, Chron. ad annum, 434, torn. 1. — Rer. Gal. Fol. Paris, 
1738, p. 630. His words are, "Ad Scotas in Christum credentes 
ordinatur a Papa Celestino Palladius, et primus Episcopus mit~ 
titur." " Scoti " was then, and for a long time after, the ex 
elusive designation of the Irish people. 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 13 

the Venerable Bede, an English monk and his- 
torian, A. D. 701 ; by Probus, an Irish writer of 
the ninth century ; by the Annals of the Four 
Masters; by Marianus Scotus, an Irish writer in 
the year 1059 ; and by Saint Sigebert, the rnonk 
of Gemblours, who wrote in or about the year 
1101. 

Q. What are the words of Saint Prosper of 
Acquitaine ? 

A. He says : " By Pope Celestine is Palladius 
ordained and sent the first bishop to the Irish 
believing in Christ." 

Q. What are the words of Saint Columbanus ? 

A. Saint Columbanus wrote a letter to Pope 
Boniface the Fourth, in which he thus speaks to 
that Pontiff: " As your friend, your scholar, your 
servant, not as a stranger, will I speak ; therefore, 
as to our masters, to the steersmen, to the mystic 
pilots of the spiritual ship, will I freely speak, 
saying, Watch, for the sea is stormy ; watch, for 
the water has already gotten into the ship of the 
church, and the ship is in danger ! " * 

Q. What do you notice in these words? 

A. I notice, that this Irish prelate acknowledges 
the Roman Pontiffs to have been the spiritual 
teachers of the Irish Christian church ; and also 
that he begs of the Pope to defend that church 
from the dangers that beset it. ? 

Q. Who was Cummian? 

A. He was an Irish abbot, in the seventh 
century. 

Q. Did Cummian acknowledge that the Irish 
received their faith from Rome ? 

A. Yes. 

* S. CoLUMBANi, Epist. ad iSonifaciurn IV. Biblioth Vet. 
Pat. t. xii. p. 532, Ed. Gallandio. 
o 



14 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What are his words ? 

A. He says: "We sent those persons whom 
we knew to be wise and humble men, to Rome, 
as it were children to their mother." * 

Q. What does the Venerable Bede say ? 

A. He says: " In the eighth year of the reign 
of Theodosius the Younger, Palladius was sent by 
Celestine, Pontiff of the Roman church, to the 
Irish believing in Christ, as their first bishop." t 

Q. What are the words of Probus, the Irish 
writer of the ninth century 1 

A. He says : " The Archdeacon Palladius was 
ordained and sent to this island (Ireland) by 
Celestine, the forty-fifth Pope who occupied the 
apostolic chair in succession from Saint Peter." J 

Q. What does Probus call Rome? 

A. " The head of all churches." £ 

Q. Do the ancient annals of Innisfallen attest 
the connection of the early Irish church with that 
of Rome 1 

A. They do. 

Q. In what manner 1 

A. They tell us that, in 402, two Irishmen, 
Kiaran and Declan, having sojourned in Rome, 
came thence to preach Christianity in Ireland ; 
that, in 412, St. Ailbe, of Emly, came from Rome 
to announce the faith in Ireland ; and that, in 
420, Ibar Invarensis (another Irishman who had 
studied in Rome) came thence to Ireland. § 

Q. Have we got traces of any earlier con- 

* Cummianus Hibernus. A. D. 650. apud Usserium, Vet. 
Epis. Hibern. SyUoge, p. 13. 

t Ven. Bedje. Hist. Eccles. gentis Anglorum, 1. 1, c. 13. 

j Probus, de Vita S. Patricii, apud Bedam. p. 315, t. iii. — 
Basil, 1573. 

§ O'Connor, Rer. Hibern. Script, t. ii. in Annal. Innisfall. 
pp. 12, IS. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 15 

nection than this between the Irish and the 
Roman Christians? 

A. Yes ; so far back as the year 360, a certain 
Christian priest had been sent from Rome to 
Ireland, to teach the Christian faith there ; and it 
was from that priest that Saint Ailbe of Emly 
received baptism.* 

Q. Who was Marianus Scotus, and when did 
he flourish? 

A. He was an Irish scholar and writer, and 
he flourished about the year 1059. 

Q. What are his words ? 

A. He says that, " in the year of Christ 432, 
to the Irish believing in Christ, Palladius, or- 
dained by Pope Celestine, was sent the first 
bishop. After him Saint Patrick, who was a 
Gaul by birth, and consecrated by Pope Celestine, 
is sent to the Irish archiepiscopacy."t 

Q. There were Christians in Ireland, then, 
before the arrival of Palladius and Patrick ? 

A. Yes; a very small and scattered number. 

Q. By whom had that small number of Irish 
Christians been first taught the faith ? 

A. Probably by the Roman priest who visited 
Ireland in 360, and who baptized Saint Ailbe of 
Emly. 

Q. Who was the great apostle of the faith to 
the Irish nation ? 

A. Saint Patrick. 

Q. Where was he born ? 

A. At Boulogne, in Armoric Gaul. 

Q. Who was his father ? 

A. Calphurnius. 

* Usserii. Britan. Eccles. Antiq. Index Chranologieus, p. 
•12, et ex vita S. Albei, ib. p. 409. 
t Marianus Scotus, Chron. ad annum, ed. BariU. 1559. 



16 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. Was Calphurnius in holy orders ? 

A. Not at the time of his son's birth. He was 
then a layman ; but at a later period he separated 
from his wife, and took holy orders in the church. 

Q. On what authority do you state these facts 1 

A. On the authority of the ancient writer of 
Saint Patrick's life, Joceline.* 

Q. Had Saint Patrick great success in his 



mission 



A. His success was perfect. He converted 
the entire of Ireland to the Christian religion ; 
thus gloriously finishing the work of Saint Pal- 
ladius. 

Q. Did Saint Patrick teach spiritual obedience 
to the Pope? 

A. He did. Among the canons or rules made 
in the synods which he called together, and over 
which he presided, we find it ordained, " that if 
any questions arise in this island, they are to be 
referred to the Apostolic See."t 

Q. Did other prelates of the early Irish church 
practise the obedience to the Pope which Saint 
Patrick taught? 

A. They did. 

Q. How does the Irish Saint Columbanus, in 
the sixth century, address Pope Gregory the Great ? 

A. He calls him the " Holy Lord and Roman 
Father in Christ;"" — the chosen Watchman. 



* "Postquam vero aliquantum processerant in diebus suis 
(Parentis S. Patricii) faelici generatione completa, communi 
consensu, castitati studuerunt, et sancto fine in Domino qui- 
everunt. Calphurnius autem prius in Diaconatu diutius 
Domino servavit, postremo in Presbyteratu vitam finivit." — 
Jocelinus Vit. S. Patric. C. i. 

t " Si quaB questiones in hac insula oriantur, ad sedem 
Apostolicam referantur." — Canones S. Patricii, apud Wil- 
kins j Concil. Mag. Brit. t. i. p. 6. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 17 

possessed of the divine theory of the treasurer- 
ship;" — he speaks of him as "lawfully sitting 
in the chair of Saint Peter the Apostle ; " and he 
begs the Pope to decide for him how he ought to 
act in certain cases.* 

Q. How does Saint Columbanus address Saint 
Gregory's successor, Pope Boniface the Fourth 1 

A. He calls him " The Holy Lord, and in 
Christ the Apostolic Father." t 

Q. Does Saint Columbanus elsewhere recog- 
nize the Pope's supremacy ? 

A. Yes. In another letter to Pope Boniface 
IV., he calls him " the head of all the churches of 
the whole of Europe ; " he also terms the Pope 
"the Pastor of pastors." \ In the same letter, 
Columbanus says, " We are, as I said before, 
bound to the chair of Saint Peter. For though 
Rome is great and renowned, it is through this 
chair only that she is great and bright amongst 
us." § 

Q. Did not a dispute arise in the Irish church 
about the time when Easter ought to be kept ? 

A. Yes ; towards the end of the sixth and be- 
ginning of the seventh century. 

Q. What did the Irish abbot, Cummian, say 
with regard to that dispute 1 

A. Cummian quoted Saint Jerome's words : " I 
cry out, whosoever is joined t© the chair of Saint 
Peter, that man is mine ! — What more ? I turn 



* S. Columbani, Epist. i. ad Gregorium Papam, inter 
opera S. Columbani, apud Gallandii, Bib. Vet. Pat.t. xii. 
p. 345. 

f Ibid. p. 349. 

% Ibid. pp. 349—354. 

§ Venerable Beoe. Hx»t. Eccles. Gentis. Anglor. I, ii. 
c. six. p. 148, ed. Stevenson. Lon. 1838 j also Epist. S. Greg. 
1. ii. c. iv. 

2* 



18 CATECHISM OF THE 

me to the words of the bishop of the city of 
Rome, Pope Gregory, received by us in com- 
mon." * 

Q. Did the Irish Christians fall into a wrong 
mode of computing Easter 1 

A. They did. 

Q. Who reclaimed the Irish .from that error 1 

A. Pope Honorius, about the year 628.t 

Q. Did the Irish resist the Pope's settlement 
of this question among them 1 

A. So far from that, they yielded to it a ready 
and cheerful obedience. 

Q. Had Pope Honorius a legate in Ireland 
about this time ? (628.) 

A. Yes. He appointed Saint Lasrean, an Irish 
prelate, his legate in Ireland. 

Q. Do we find other proofs, in history, of the 
close connection between the early Irish Chris- 
tians and the Apostolic Chair I 

A. Yes. The missionaries from Ireland used 
to go to Rome to do homage to the Pope, and beg 
his leave and his blessing, before they went to 
preach to pagan nations. 

Q. Do you know the names of any who did so 1 

A. Yes. Saint Dichul, or Deicolus, did so. 
About the year 686, Saint Killian and his com- 
panion missionaries did so. Saint Willibrord 
(a saint of English birth, who had long lived in 
Ireland) did so. 

Q. Did Irish bishops take part in Roman 
councils ? 



* Cuinmiani Hiberni ad Segienum Huensem Abbatem, dc 
Controversus Paschcdi Epistola, apud Usskrium, Vet. Epist. 
Hibern. SyUoge. 

t This is stated by Archbishop Usber, in his work " Ih 
Brittamicarwn Eccksiarum Primordiis. p. 938. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 19 

A. Yes. 

Q. State an instance. 

A. Among the bishops who attended the coun- 
cil held at Rome by Pope Gregory II., in the year 
721, were Sedulius, an Irishman, bishop in Britain; 
and Fergustus the Pict, bishop in Ireland. 

Q. What means were taken to get Waterford 
made a bishop's see ? 

A. King Murtogh, his brother Dermod, and 
the four bishops, Domnald, Idunan (of Meath), 
Samuel (of Dublin), and Ferdomnach (of Lein- 
ster), petitioned Anselm, the archbishop of Can- 
terbury, to erect Waterford into a bishopric. 

Q. Why did they apply to the archbishop of 
Canterbury ? 

A. Because he had, at that time, primatial au- 
thority over the Irish Christian church, as well as 
over the English. 

Q. What was the language of the applicants'? 

A. They begged Anselm would appoint a 
bishop, " in virtue of the power of primacy which 
he held over them, and of the authority of the 
apostolic function which he exercised." * 

Q. Did Anselm indicate the Pope's primacy, 
in his communications to the Irish prelates 1 

A. Of course he did. In writing to the bishop 
of Dublin, (the aforesaid Samuel,) he says to him, 
" I have heard that thou hast a cross borne before 
thee on the highways. If this be true, I order 
thee to do so no more, because this belongeth only 
to an archbishop confirmed by the pall from the 
Roman Pontiff." t 



* Primatus quern super eos gerpbat potestale. et qua fcnge- 
batur Vicis ApostoucjE Auctoritate." Eadmeri, 
Histories Novorum, 1. ii. p. 36. ed. Seldeno. London, J623. 

t Anselmus Archiepiscopus Cantuari-s, venarabili 



20 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What was the language of Gilbert, bishop 
of Limerick, in the year 1090 ? 

A. He says : " All the church's members are 
to be brought under one bishop, namely, Christ, 
and his vicar, blessed Peter the Apostle, and the 
Pope presiding in his chair, to be governed by 
them." 

Q. Does this ancient Irish bishop add anything 
more on this subject 1 

A. Yes ; his words are : " To Peter only was it 
said, ' Thou art Peter, and upon this rock will I 
build my Church ; ' therefore, it is the Pope only 
who stands high above the whole church ; and he 
puts in order and judges all." * 

Q. What remarkable occurrence took place in 
the twelfth century 1 

A. Malachi, the primate of all Ireland, visited 
Rome, and was appointed, by Pope Innocent the 
Second, his legate in Ireland. 

Q. What was the particular purpose of his 
visit to Rome? 

A. To obtain from the Pope the honor of the 
pall, or pallium, for the Irish archbishops. 

Q. What was the pallium ? 

A. An ensign of legatine authority. 

Q. What was k he Pope's answer 1 

A. He told Malachi that he would grant his 
request, but that it should first be made by the 
general body of the Irish prelates assembled in 
synod.t 

fralro Samueli Dublini civitatis Episcopo. Apud Usserium, 
Vet. Epist. Hibern. Sylloge, p. 69. 

* De Urn Ecclesiastico — Gilleberti Lunicensis ( Lim- 
erick) Episcopi, Epistola ad Episcopos Hibernia, apud Us- 
serium, Vet. Epist. Hibern. Sylloge, p. 54, et passim. 

t Vita S. Malachi x a S Bernardo, apud Surium, torn. vi. 
p. 100. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 21 

Q. Was this promise fulfilled ? 

A. Not immediately ; for, on Malachi's next 
journey to Rome, to obtain the performance of 
the promise, he fell sick and died at Clairvaux, in 
France, in 1148. 

Q. Were the palls granted ? 

A. Yes. Pope Eugenius the Third granted 
that privilege, through his nuncio, Cardinal Pa- 
paro, who visited Ireland in the year 1151. 

Q. What happened the following year ? 

A. A council was held at Kells, at which there 
were twenty-four Irish prelates, and Cardinal Pa- 
paro presided ; and Ireland was there divided into 
four archbishopricks. 

Q. Name them. 

A. Armagh, Dublin, Cashel, and Tuam. 

Q. When was the council of Cashel held ? 

A. In the year 1172. 

Q. Did any other event of importance happen 
in that year 1 

A. Yes; Henry II., king of England, landed 
in this country, and received the allegiance of 
several Irish prelates and princes, as king of 
Ireland. 

Q. Was that allegiance tendered to Henry by 
the council of Cashel 1 

A. No ; the council of Cashel had nothing to 
do with it ; the allegiance of the prelates had been 
tendered to Henry at Waterford. 

Q. What were the decrees of the council of 
Cashel ? 

A. They were aimed against certain evils of 
the time, such as marriages performed within the 
forbidden degrees of relationship ; informality and 
carelessness in baptism; extortion committed by 



22 CATECHISM OF THE 

powerful laymen on the church-lands ; neglect 
of due solemnity at burials, &>c. 

Q. Was there any other important decree of 
the council of Cashel ? 

A. Yes ; it enforced the payment of tithes to 
the clergy. 

Q. Had tithes existed in Ireland previously ? 

A. Yes ; they had been introduced twenty years 
before, at the council of Kells, held under Car- 
dinal Paparo. 



CHAPTER III. 

Invasion of Ireland by the Danes. 

Q. When did the Danes invade Ireland ? 

A. In the ninth century. 

Q. By what name were they known ? 

A. They were called Eastmen, or Ostmen. 

Q. Did they succeed in subduing the country? 

A. Their success was at first only partial. 
They soon, however, seized upon towns and 
villages along the coast, and built castles to 
strengthen their position. 

Q. Did they soon become more powerful? 

A. Yes; before long they overran the whole 
island. 

Q. Who was the Danish king of Ireland? 

A. Turgesius. 

Q. How was he enabled to conquer the whole 
kingdom ? 

A. By the disputes and divisions of the Irish 
chiefs themselves. The native princes were too 
busy, quarrelling with each other, to oppose a 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 23 

united and effectual resistance to the conquering 
Danes. 

Q. What useful lesson do we learn from this 
fact? 

A. That Ireland never can be great, pros- 
perous, or happy, so long as her people are 
divided amongst themselves. 

Q. Did Turgesius reign long ? 

A. No. He was soon cut off by the contri- 
vance of an Irish prince to whom he had made 
himself obnoxious. 

Q. What followed'? 

A. The Irish revolted against the Danes; and, 
as they combined together tolerably well, they 
drove the invaders out of the centre of the country 
to the coasts ; where, however, they still kept 
possession of the seaports. 

Q. Did the Danes ever recover their former 
power in Ireland? 

A. No. In the eleventh century, the Irish 
resolved to make a grand effort for their final 
expulsion from the island ; and a battle was fought 
on the plains of Clontarf, near Dublin, on Good 
Friday, 1014, in which the Danes were driven to 
their ships with great slaughter. 

Q. Who was the leader of the Irish army upon 
that occasion ? 

A. Brian Boroimhe, king-paramount of Ire- 
land, the greatest and best king that Ireland ever 
saw. 

Q. Did he live to enjoy the fruits of his victory ? 

A. No ; he was slaughtered, while at prayer in 
his tent, by a straggling party of the enemy. 

Q. What was the result of Brian Boroimhe's 
death upon the general interests of the kingdom ? 

A. In the last degree disastrous. On the death 



24 CATECHISM OF THE 

of the monarch, whose skill and wisdom had for 
many years governed the land in prosperity and 
peace, the absurd and criminal squabbles of the 
petty princes were revived, and the country was 
ravaged with intestine warfare. 

Q. Is there any use in recording and dwelling 
on these disgraceful contentions 1 

A. Yes ; they teach us a useful, though a 
bitter, lesson. The crimes of our forefathers show 
us what we should avoid. We see, in their 
miserable domestic quarrels, the true cause why 
foreign power was able to introduce, and to es- 
tablish, its supremacy in Ireland. 

Q. Did the unsettled condition of the country 
afford strong encouragement to the English king, 
Henry the Second ? 

A. Of course it did. Several of the Irish 
princes, and all the Irish prelates, wearied with 
perpetual civil discord, were not unwilling that 
the kingdom should be placed under a strong 
sovereign ruler ; and this circumstance gained a 
welcome for Henry from the heads of the church, 
and a large number of the temporal rulers of the 
island. 

Q. What circumstance first drew the British 
invaders to Ireland? 

A. Dermot, king of Leinster, having been 
driven out of his kingdom by O'Rorke, prince 
of Breffny, and O'Connor, king of Connaught, 
sought the assistance of Henry the Second of 
England against his native rivals. 

Q. In what year did Dermot thus seek help 
from Henry 1 

A. In 1168. 

Q. How did Henry receive Dermot's appli- 
cation ? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 25 

A. He required the Irish king to do homage 
to him for his possessions ; and being then unable 
to go to Ireland himself, he gave Dermot letters- 
patent, authorizing any English subjects, who 
might be so inclined, to assist Dermot against 
O'Connor and O'Rorke. 

Q, Whose assistance did Dermot procure ? 
. A. That of Richard, Earl of Strigul and 
Pembroke, usually called Strongbow, from his skill 
in archery. 

Q. What reward did Dermot promise Strong- 
bow for his help ? 

A. He promised to give him his daughter Eva 
in marriage, and also to bequeath to him the 
inheritance of his kingdom. 

Q. Did Dermot obtain any other help than 
Strongbow's? 

A. Yes ; he got the aid of Robert Fitz-Stephen, 
Maurice Fitz-Gerald, Meyler Fitz-Henry, Maurice 
de Prendergast, Hervey Montmarisco, and several 
other knights. 

Q. When did the Anglo-Norman invaders first 
land in Ireland? 

A. They landed on the coast of Wexford in 
the month of May, 1170. 

Q. Was Strongbow among their number? 

A. No ; he had waited to obtain the express 
permission of King Henry for his Irish expedition. 

Q. Did Henry grant permission to Strongbow 
to go to Ireland ? 

A. No; he was jealous of Strongbow, and 
doubted his allegiance. 

Q. What did Strongbow then do ? 

A. He sailed for Ireland without Henry's per- 
mission, carrying with him a considerable force, 
with whose aid he seized Waterford. 
S 



26 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What followed? 

A. Strongbow married Eva, the daughter of 
Dermot Mac Murrough, king of Leinster ; and, on 
Dermot's death, he succeeded to his father-in-law's 
territory. 

Q. In what year did Henry visit Ireland ? 

A. In 1171. He pardoned Strongbow, and 
confirmed to him the possession of his territories 
under the English crown. 

Q. Did the Pope sanction Henry the Second 
in his invasion of Ireland ? 

A. Yes ; Pope Adrian the Fourth had, many 
years before, (about A. D. 1155,) been solicited 
by Henry to sanction the conquest of Ireland ; 
and being himself an Englishman, he readily 
consented to a scheme that promised to extend 
the power of his native country. 

Q. Did all the Irish submit to King Henry the 
Second ? 

A. No ; the larger portion of them resisted his 
authority. 

Q. Were the English laws extended to the 
whole of Ireland? 

A. No ; they were at first granted only to the 
Norman colonists, to some of the seaport towns, 
and to a few native septs, or clans, who obtained 
the benefit of them as a matter of favor. 

Q. How many clans obtained the benefit of the 
English laws ? 

A. Five. 

Q. Name them. 

A. The O'Neills of Ulster, the O'Connors of 
Connaught, the O'Briens of Thomond, the 
O'Lachlans of Meath, and the Kavanaghs (other- 
wise Mac Murroughs) of Leinster. 

Q. How long did this exclusion of the great 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 27 

body of the natives, from the benefit of the Eng- 
lish law, continue ? 

A. For several centuries; so late, in fact, as 
the reign of Elizabeth. 

Q. What was the practical effect of this ex- 
clusion? 

A. To deprive the whole Irish nation, (except- 
ing the five tribes already mentioned, the descend- 
ants of the colonists, and the inhabitants of the 
seaports,) of all remedy in law for any injury done 
to them, and even of all power of suing for re- 
dress in any court of justice. 

Q. Was not an effort made by the natives to 
expel the Anglo-Norman invaders 1 

A. Yes ; and their hopes were excited by a 
victory they had gained over Strongbow, the Eng- 
lish commander, who was defeated in an engage- 
ment near Thurles. 

Q. Who was at the head of the new confed- 
eracy against the invaders 1 

A. Roderick O'Connor, king-paramount of 
Ireland. 

Q. Did Roderick succeed ? 

A. No ; his efforts were marred by the old 
curse of Ireland — the want of unity and combina- 
tion amongst her inhabitants. 

Q. Had the Anglo-Normans any other advan- 
tage over the natives, except that which they de- 
rived from the dissensions of the latter 1 

A. Yes ; they understood the art of war much 
better than the Irish. They were clad in com- 
plete suits of steel armor, and were perfect in the 
management of their chargers : whereas, the 
Irish had but slight defences, and had merely the 
rude weapons of their forefathers to oppose to the 
array and discipline of their powerful invaders. 



28 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What was thenceforth the condition of 
Ireland ? 

A. Most wretched. There was constant war- 
fare between the natives and the settlers ; in which 
the victory was sometimes with the Irish. They 
were brave and ardent, and often made their ene- 
mies (although cased in armor) feel the weight of 
their rude and simple weapons. 

Q. What were the weapons of the Irish 
warriors 1 

A. They had a short lance, or javelin, and a 
steel hatchet, named a " sparthe" They acquired 
so much skill in the use of this sparthe, that in 
close combat they often clove through the steel 
armor of their adversaries with it. 

Q. What were the houses of the Irish built of 
at that period ? 

A. Of timber and wicker-work, and construct- 
ed with such skill as to excite the admiration of 
foreigners. 

Q. What was the state of religion in Ireland in 
the twelfth century ? 

A. Religion, of course, suffered severely by the 
license and havoc resulting from domestic warfare; 
and its precepts were too often forgotten and neg- 
lected by the turbulent factions who divided the 
country. 

Q. What was at that time the character of the 
clergy of Ireland? 

A. The ancient historian, Giraldus Cambren- 
sis, although extremely prejudiced against the 
Irish nation, yet -describes the clergy as being 
most virtuous. 

Q. What good qualities does he ascribe to the 
Irish priesthood ? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 29 

A. He says they were preeminently chaste,* 
temperate in their food, and attentive to their re- 
ligious duties. He, however, censures the bishops 
as slothful ; an accusation not easily reconciled 
with the admitted virtues of the priesthood from 
whose ranks they had risen to the episcopacy. 

Q. Who was Laurence O'Toole 1 

A. One of the best and greatest prelates who 
have adorned the Irish church. He was arch- 
Dishop of Dublin, and afterwards of Armagh. 

Q. What was his conduct in reference to the 
English invasion 1 

A. He exerted himself to rouse the Irish chiefs 
and princes to a grand combined effort to resist 
the English invaders, and even bore arms himself 
to encourage his countrymen. 

Q. When, and where, did this good prelate 
die? 

A. He died in 1178, at the monastery of Eu, 
in Normandy. 



CHAPTER IV. 

The Reign of Henri/ the Second concluded. 

Q. What are the earliest traces we have of par- 
liaments in Ireland ? 

A. About the year 1169 we find Roderick 
O'Connor, king-paramount of Ireland, convoking 
a general council of the princes and nobles of the 
land at Tara. But this council did not possess 



* " Inter varias quibus pollet virtutes, castitatis prerogativa 
prase mine t atque prcecellet." c. 27. 



30 CATECHISM OF THE 

the representative character which attaches to the 
modern house of commons. 

Q. Did Henry the Second call a parliament in 
Ireland 1 

A. He did ; and that parliament passed a law 
arranging the executive government of Ireland.* 

Q. Was Ireland peaceful during Henry's 
reign 1 

A. It was at the commencement of it, so long 
as Henry remained in Ireland to overawe resist- 
ance by his presence. 

Q. How long did he remain in Ireland? 

A. Six months. 

Q. After he quitted it, what occurred ? 

A. Civil war succeeded the short peace which 
had prevailed during his stay. 

Q. How did it arise 1 

A. From the discontent excited by the grasping 
rapacity of Henry and his followers. 

Q. Give an example of this. 

A. He granted away the entire kingdom of 
Meath, the royal patrimony of the house of Me- 
lachlin, to Hugh De Lacy, an Anglo-Norman 
knight. 

Q. What was the extent of land thus trans- 
ferred to De Lacy ? 

A. About eight hundred thousand acres. 



* "The statute, 2 Richard III. c. 8, recites as follows: 
'Que le Statute de Henry Fitz Emprice,' [Henry the Second] 
' ordeine pour la eleccion del gouvernor, 7 &c, had made 
several regulations for supplying occasional vacancies in that 
office. It then proceeds to amend the same. Here, therefore, 
we have an evidence of a purely legislative enactment of 
primary importance, made in Ireland, arranging the executive 
government itself, and coeval with the supposed conquest of 
the kingdom." Mr. Monck Mason's Essay on the Constitution 
and Antiquity of Parliaments in Ireland, p. 3, Dublin, 1820. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 31 

Q. In whose occupation had this territory been, 
prior to Henry's seizure of it ? 

A. In that of O'Ruarc, to whom it had been 
temporarily given by Roderick O'Connor. 

Q. Did O'Ruarc endeavor to obtain amends 1 

A. Yes ; he asked redress from Hugh de Lacy, 
who appointed Tara Hill for a conference. They 
met, with a stipulated number of followers upon 
each side. The two chiefs, unarmed, and at a 
distance from all the rest, conferred together with 
the help of an interpreter. 

Q. Did their conference end peaceably ? 

A. No ; a strife arose, and O'Ruarc was slain 
by a relation of De Lacy's named Griffith. His 
corpse was beheaded, and buried with the heels 
upwards, in token of contempt. His head was 
exposed on a stake over one of the gates of Dublin, 
and finally sent to England, to the king. 

Q. Where did the celebrated Strongbow at 
this time reside ? 

A. At Ferns, in Leinster, the residence of his 
father-in-law, King Dermot Mac Murrough. 

Q. Was he engaged in civil war with any of 
the native chiefs ? 

A. Yes ; with O'Dempsey O'Faley. 

Q. What was the cause of quarrel 1 

A. O'Faley had refused to attend the court of 
Strongbow ; whereupon the latter invaded his 
territory. 

Q. With what success 1 

A. Strongbow, at first, being unresisted, spread 
destruction in his progress. But on his return he 
was attacked by O'Faley, at the head of a party, 
who slew a number of the Strongbownian knights, 
including Strongbow's son-in-law, De Quincy, and 
captured the standard of Leinster. 



32 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. In what year did that skirmish occur 1 

A. In 1173. 

Q. Did any commotions take place in the fol- 
lowing year ? 

A. Yes. In 1174 Strongbow sent his relation, 
Hervey de Mount-Maurice, to attack Donald 
O'Brian, king of Limerick. A large reinforce- 
ment of Strongbow's army, however, were sur- 
prised at Ossory, and almost totally destroyed, by a 
party whom Donald O'Brian commanded. 

Q. What was Strongbow's revenge for this 
defeat ? 

A. He sent Raymond, one of his best military 
commanders, with a large force, to besiege Lim- 
erick. The assailants succeeded in taking the 
town, notwithstanding a gallant defence. 

Q. How long did the English keep Limerick ? 

A. Until May, 1176. Raymond was then 
obliged to repair to Dublin, Strongbow having 
died ; and being unable to leave a sufficient force 
to occupy Limerick, he surrendered it back to 
Donald O'Brian ; pretending to rely on O'Brian's 
future loyalty to the king of England. 

Q. How did Donald O'Brian act, on obtaining 
possession of the town ? 

A. Ere Raymond's forces were out of sight, 
Donald set fire to the town, saying " that it should 
never again be made a nest of foreigners." 

Q. Where was Strongbow buried? 

A. In the cathedral of Christ Church, Dublin. 

Q. Did Meath continue peaceful all this 
time? 

A. By no means. De Lacy had given the 
castle of Slane, in Meath, to one of his followers, 
named Fleming. The Irish chief who had been 
dispossessed surprised the English garrison and 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 33 

inhabitants of Slane, put them all to the sword, 
and recovered possession of his castle. 

Q. What further results followed ? 

A. The English, in Meath, were so terrified, 
that the garrisons of three other castles, built by 
Fleming in that territory, evacuated them on the 
following day. 

Q. Did King Henry enter into a treaty with 
Roderick O'Connor, king-paramount of Ireland 1 

A. He did, in 1175. 

Q. What were the terms of this treaty ? 

A. Henry was bound to protect Roderick in 
possession of his territories, provided that Rod- 
erick consented to hold them as Henry's tributary. 
Roderick, on the other hand, was bound to com- 
pel the Irish princes to pay tribute which was to 
pass through his hands to Henry. In case of any 
rebellion against Henry, Roderick was empowered, 
by the terms of the treaty, to judge and punish 
the insurgents. 

Q. What was the amount of tribute stipulated ? 

A. One hide for every ten head of cattle 
slaughtered within the kingdom. 

Q. Was this treaty observed 1 

A. No; in the turmoil and confusion of the 
times its observance was impossible. 

Q. Did the Irish and their invaders blend into 
one nation ? 

A. Not at that period. The greatest hatred, 
in general, animated the two races against each 
other. 

Q. What, then, prevented the Irish from com- 
bining to drive the invaders out of the land 1 

A. They were too busy quarrelling with each 
other for any such great national effort. Their 
bravery, their enterprise, their mental abilities 



34 CATECHISM OF THE 

were all rendered unavailing by their unhappy 
internal divisions. It often happened that they 
joined the English forces, and fought in their ranks 
against some hostile native chieftain. 

Q. Did not the English also often contend 
against each other 1 

A. Yes ; English troops were sometimes to be 
found on opposite sides fighting in the ranks of 
contending Irish chiefs ; and the English leaders 
themselves were occasionally influenced, by their 
mutual jealousies, to assume an attitude of armed 
hostility against each other. 

Q. Did not some of the new settlers intermarry 
with the native Irish families 1 

A. Yes ; we have seen that Strongbow married 
Eva, the daughter of Dermot Mac Murrough ; and 
Hugh De Lacy, to whom Meath had been granted, 
married the daughter of King Roderick O'Connor. 
There were also several other such alliances. 

Q. To whom did King Henry grant Ireland 1 

A. To his son John. 

Q. What was John's character ? 

A. He was cruel, profligate, extravagant, and 
vain ; destitute alike of moral principle and politi- 
cal wisdom. 

Q. In what year did John arrive in Ireland ? 

A. He landed at Waterford in 1185. 

Q. What was John's conduct ? 

A. He commenced by offering personal insults 
to the Irish chieftains who came to offer their 
respects to him as the son of their sovereign. 
He, and his courtiers, plucked their beards, 
ridiculed their dress and manners, mimicked their 
attitudes, and finally turned them out of the 
presence. 

Q. How did the chiefs act ? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 35 

A. They resented the insolence ^pf John by a 
strong effort to throw off the Anglo-Norman 
power. 

Q. How far did they succeed ? 

A. Their triumphs were partial. The prince 
of Limerick destroyed the English garrison of 
Ardfinnan. At Lismore, Robert De Barry and 
his entire troop were cut off. In Ossory, Roger 
De la Poer was slain, and his force destroyed. 
Two gallant knights, named Fitz-Hugh and Can- 
ton, were also slain by the Irish. The English 
garrison of Mogeva, in Tyrone, was routed with 
great slaughter by O'Loughlin, prince of that 
territory. 

Q. Was the English power in Cork assailed by 
the natives 1 

A. Yes; M'Carthy, prince of Desmond, very 
nearly succeeded in capturing the city. He was, 
however, foiled by the gallant defence of Fitz- 
Walter. 

Q. Was the English power in Meath attacked ? 

A. It was, by the northern Irish ; who were 
with great loss and difficulty repuised by William 
Petit. 

Q. When King Henry learned these tidings, 
what steps did he take? 

A. He recalled his foolish and profligate son, 
and appointed John De Courcy, earl of Ulster, 
lord deputy of Ireland. 

Q. Did De Courcy put down the insurrection 1 

A. Yes. Even at this most critical juncture, 
the old curse of Ireland — the mutual quarrels of 
her chiefs — rendered them liable to easy defeat. 

Q. What became of King Roderick O'Connor 1 

A. He was dethroned by his own sons, and 
ended his days in the monastery of Oong. 



36 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What schools did he found and endow ? 

A. The schools of Armagh. 

Q. When did King Henry die ? 

A. In the year 1 189, at Chinon, in Normandy. 



CHAPTER V. 
The Reigns of Richard J., John, and Henri/ III. 

Q. Who succeeded Henry as king of England? 

A. His eldest son, Richard. 

Q. Did King Richard assume the control of 
Ireland ? 

A. No ; he left the management of the country 
to his brother John, to whom the late King Henry 
had granted it. 

Q. What was John's first measure ? 

A. He began by removing De Courcy from 
the office of lord deputy, and appointing Hugh 
De Lacy to the government. 

Q. What was the result of this step ? 

A. Open hatred on the part of De Courcy to 
his successor. 

Q. Did De Lacy long continue lord deputy ? 

A. No. He was soon removed and replaced 
by William Petit, who, in turn, was displaced to 
make room for the late Earl Strongbow's son-in- 
law, William Earl Marshal. 

Q. What steps did the Lord Deputy Earl 
Marshal take? 

A. He proceeded to Munster, to subdue the 
insurgents there. 

Q. With what success ? 

A. His campaign began unpromising! v. O'Bri- 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 37 

an, prince of Thomond, encountered him at 
Thurles, and overthrew his forces, putting to the 
sword a great number of knights. The English 
were routed from Munster, with the sole exception 
of Cork, which was still retained by an English 
garrison. 

Q. Did the Irish make any effort to obtain 
Cork? 

A. Yes ; M'Carthy of Desmond, who had pre- 
viously been repulsed from Cork by the English 
garrison under Fitz-Walter, now renewed his at- 
tack on the city ; the army sent to reenforce the 
defenders had been cut off by the Irish, and the 
garrison, having exhausted their provisions, sur- 
rendered to M'Carthy. 

Q. Did the Irish chiefs improve this success to 
establish their own power on a lasting basis? 

A. Unhappily not. M'Carthy, prince of Des- 
mond, jealous of the power of O'Brian, prince of 
Thomond, actually invited the English to assist 
him against his rival, and even permitted them to 
build the castle of Breginnis in Desmond, the 
better to enable them to harass O' Brian ! 

Q. In what year did this occur ? 

A. About the year 1 190. 

Q. Why do we record these shameful squab- 
bles? 

A. Because they show us the true cause of 
Ireland's subjection to a foreign power. The Irish 
had numberless opportunities of establishing their 
own independence, and lost every one of them by 
their absurd and mischievous contentions. 

Q. What do modern Irishmen learn from these 
facts ? 

A. They learn that, in order to regain their 
native parliament, it is absolutely necessary to 
4 



38 CATECHISM OF THE 

forget all past dissensions, and to work together 
as one man — cordially, heartily, perseveringly. 

Q. You have said that some of the invading 
chiefs also quarrelled with each other : can you 
name any who did so 1 

A. Yes; Fitz-Aldelm De Burgo, the lord dep- 
uty, seized on Raymond Fitzgerald's castle of 
Wicklow. 

Q. Was this the only case of the kind 1 

A. By no means. Fitz-Aldelm compelled 
Raymond Le Gros, and Robert Fitz-Stephen, to 
yield the lands they had originally got to newer 
invaders; and the dispossessed knights were 
obliged to content themselves with less profitable 
territories, in a more dangerous part of the 
country. 

Q. Have you any other instances of dissension 
amongst the English in Ireland ] 

A. Yes ; Meyler Fitz-Henry marched an army 
against De Burgo in Connaught ; and De Lacy, 
at the head of a powerful force, attacked De 
Courcy in Ulster. De Lacy was also engaged in 
war against the young Earl of Pembroke, whose 
estates he had tried to seize. 

Q. How did their struggle end 1 

A. Pembroke was destroyed by the treachery 
of Geoffry De Maurisco, an English knight, who 
had promised to support him, but who betrayed 
him by suddenly drawing off his forces at the 
moment of battle. 

Q. Did the Fitzgerald family partake of this 
turbulence 1 

A. Yes ; they actually seized on the lord dep- 
uty, (Richard De Capella,) and threw him into 
prison for his efforts to resist their usurpations. 
Civil war among the Anglo-Norman barons be- 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 39 

came frequent ; thus affording to the native Irish 
many opportunities of freedom, derived from the 
violent divisions of their invaders. 

Q. In what year did King John die ? 

A. In the year 1216. 

Q. What quarrels, about that time, disturbed 
Connaught? 

A. De Burgo usurped certain lands of Feidhm 
O'Connor's; the king (Henry III.) interfered in 
behalf of O'Connor, and ordered the then lord 
deputy (Maurice Fitzgerald) to protect him from 
De Burgo's rapacity. 

Q. Who built the magnificent cathedral of 
Cashel ! 

A. Donald O'Brian, prince of Thomond. 

Q. In what year did he die 1 

A. In 1194. 

Q. Did Henry the Third hold parliaments in 
Ireland? 

A. Yes; he convened Irish parliaments in tho 
years 1253 and 1269. 

Q. What do you notice with respect to the 
Irish parliaments 1 

A. I notice, that the king's Irish subjects en- 
joyed a domestic parliament in Ireland from as 
early a period as his English subjects enjoyed a 
parliament in England. 

Q. In what year did Henry the Third die ? 

A. In 1272. 



40 CATECHISM OF THE 

CHAPTER VI. 
The Reigns of Edward I., II. , and HI. 

Q. What remarkable offer did the Irish make 
in the reign of Edward the First 1 

A. The Irish princes offered the king the sum 
of 8000 marks, provided that the rights of British 
subjects, enjoyed by the descendants of the Eng- 
lish settlers, should be extended to the whole Irish 
nation. * 

Q. How did Edward treat the offer ? 

A. He was perfectly willing to grant the 
request. 

Q. What prevented him from doing so 1 

A. The Irish lords of English descent opposed 
the king's wise plans and the wishes of the Irish 
people; for they believed that to extend the rights 
of British subjects to the whole nation would 
greatly abridge their own power to oppress and 
plunder. 

Q. Was this offer ever repeated by the Irish ? 

A. Yes ; often at later periods ; and as often 
defeated by the influence of the Anglo-Irish lords. 

Q. Did Edward the First hold a parliament in 
Ireland 1 

A. He did ; in the year 1295. 

Q. When did Edward die ? 

A. He died whilst marching against the Scotch, 
in 1307. 

Q. What great victory did the Scotch gain 
over the English, in the reign of Edward the 
Second ? 

A. Under the command of Robert Bruce, they 
defeated the English at the battle of Bannockburn, 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 41 

Q. How was this Scottish victory regarded in 
Ireland ? 

A. The chiefs of Ulster, regarding themselves 
as allied in Celtic kindred with the victors, were 
delighted at their triumph, and resolved to follow, 
if possible, so glorious an example. 

Q. Did they make the attempt ? 

A. Yes ; Edward Bruce, the brother of the 
Scottish king, landed on the eastern coast of Ul- 
ster in May, 1315, and was joined by the princi- 
pal chiefs of Ulster. 

Q. What followed? 

A. They seized on several castles; burned 
Atherdee, Dundalk, and many other towns, and 
speedily banished the English out of Ulster. 

Q. How did the barons act? 

A. Many of them were willing to enter into 
terms with Bruce ; and even the powerful house 
of De Lacy joined his standard. 

Q. How did the clergy act ? 

A. A large number of them declared in favor 
of Bruce. 

Q. What was Bruce' s next step ? 

A. He got himself solemnly crowned king of 
Ireland, at Dundalk. He then marched south- 
ward, as provisions could no longer be procured 
for his army in the north. 

Q. What Anglo-Norman lords opposed Edward 
Bruce ? 

A. Fitz-Thomas, the baron of O'Faley, and 
Butler, the lord deputy. Fitz-Thomas was re- 
warded by the king of England with the title of 
earl of Kildare, and Butler was created earl of 
Carrick. 

Q. Did other lords follow their example 1 

A. Yes ; several did so. 



42 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What support did Bruce get, besides that 
of the Ulster chieftains 1 

A. Feidlim O'Connor, of Connaught, declared 
in his favor ; but this help was soon cut off by the 
total defeat of Feidlim at the battle of Athenree. 

Q. Who commanded the royalist army against 
Feidlim'? 

A. Sir Richard Bermingham. 

Q. Was Edward Bruce dismayed by the defeat 
of his ally, O'Connor, at Athenree 1 

A. No ; he ravaged the country up to the very 
walls of Dublin. He marched through Ossory, 
and advanced into Munster. 

Q. Was he opposed in that province 1 

A. Yes ; by Sir Roger Mortimer, the new lord 
deputy, who landed with a large force at Water- 
ford. Bruce, fearing to meet this armament, 
hastily retreated northward. 

Q. What was the condition of Bruce in the 
north ? 

A. It was miserable. His army could get no 
provisions, as the country had been previously 
wasted ; and it is said that his soldiers, to allay the 
pangs of famine, used to eat the dead bodies of 
their brethren. 

Q. Did Robert Bruce, the Scottish king, take 
any steps to relieve his brother Edward ? 

A. Yes; Robert prepared to bring an army to 
assist him. 

Q. How did Edward Bruce act 1 

A. His impatience was his ruin. Instead of 
waiting for the arrival of help from Scotland, he 
led his shattered remnant of an army against Sir 
Richard Bermingham, who was at the head of 
15,000 men. They fought at Dundalk, in 1318, 
and Bruce's army was utterly routed 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 43 

Q. What was his own personal fate ? 

A. He engaged in single combat with an Eng- 
lish knight, named Maupas or Malpas; and so 
fierce was the encounter, that both were slain. 

Q. Did Robert Bruce arrive in Ireland? 

A. Yes. But he immediately returned to 
Scotland on learning the fate of his unfortunate 
brother. 

Q. How was Sir Richard Bermingham re- 
warded for his victory over Edward Bruce ? 

A. He was created earl of Louth and baron 
of Atherdee. 

Q. Did the great lords of English descent 
settle into a peaceful mode of living ? 

A. Far from it. They were as quarrelsome 
as the original Irish chiefs. In 1327, we find 
the Butlers and Berminghams ranged on the side 
of Maurice of Desmond, in fierce civil war against 
De la Poer and the De Burgos. 

Q. What was the cause of quarrel ? 

A. De la Poer had called Maurice of Desmond 
a poet; whereupon Maurice, in order to mark his 
indignation at the slander, very prosaically went 
to war with De la Poer. 

Q. What use did the old Irish clans make of 
this circumstance? 

A. They took up arms; and, under the guid- 
ance of O' Brian, prince of Thomond, defeated 
the English in several engagements, in Leinster. 

Q. What particular grievance induced the 
Irish clans to take up arms just then? 

A. They had renewed their earnest prayer to 
be admitted to the full privileges of British sub- 
jects ; which privileges, by the influence of the 
lords of English descent, had been refused to them. 

Q. Did the progress of time in any degree 



44 CATECHISM OF THE 

tend to blend the two races of English and Irish 
into one nation 1 

A. To some extent it did so. In spite of 
bitter laws forbidding intermarriages, such unions 
did take place; and some of the lords even 
renounced the English name and English lan- 
guage, and adopted Irish names and used the 
Irish tongue. 

Q. What was the description given of those 
who did so ? 

A. They were called " Hibernicis ipsis Hi- 
berniores." 

Q. What does this phrase mean ? 

A. " More Irish than the Irish themselves." 

Q. Did the Anglo-Irish lords often rebel 
against the king of England? 

A. Yes ; many of them did so. 

Q. Who was appointed lord deputy of Ireland 
in 1361 1 

A. Lionel, Duke of Clarence ; the second son 
of Edward the Third. 

Q. What remarkable statute was passed during 
Lionel's vice-royalty? 

A. The " statute of Kilkenny." 

Q. In what year was it passed ? 

A. In 1367. 

Q. What were its provisions ? 

A. It forbade, under pain of high treason, 
marriage, fosterage, or gossipred between persons 
of English descent and the old Irish families. It 
also forbade all persons of English descent to use 
the Irish language, or to adopt Irish names. 

Q. What other provisions did this statute 
contain ? 

A. It strictly forbade the king's subjects in 
Ireland to entertain in their houses Irish minstrels, 



HISTORY OF IRELAND 45 

musicians, or story-tellers. It also forbade them 
to allow an Irish horse to graze upon their 
lands ! ! ! 

Q. What was the consequence of this insane 
act? 

A. Fresh turmoils, riots, civil wars, and in- 
surrections. 

Q. How did it happen that the conquest of 
England, by the Normans, did not produce such 
evils to that country, as those which followed 
from the invasion of Ireland by the Anglo-Norman 
settlers ? 

A. Because the Norman conquerors of England 
fixed the royal seat of government in England ; 
and by the mere fact of residence, the government 
became in course of time identified in national 
feeling with that country. But in Ireland the 
government was not national in its sentiments 
or in its measures : instead of ruling Ireland for 
the good of its own people, it ruled the country for 
what it deemed the good of England ; and it kept 
the two races in Ireland from uniting with each 
other for the common benefit, as the different 
races in England had done. 



CHAPTER VII. 

Reign of Edward the Third concluded. 

Q. Did Edward find Ireland a profitable pos- 
session 1 

A. No. It was a source of heavy expense to 
him. 

Q. Did he ask the Irish for supplies of money ? 



46 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. He did ; but they replied that they had got 
none to give his majesty. 

Q. What was Edward's next act? 

A. He took a strange step. He summoned a 
sort of Irish parliament to meet him at West- 
minster; consisting of two members from each 
county, two burgesses from each city and borough, 
and two priests from each diocese. 

Q. When this odd sort of parliament had met, 
how did Edward address them ? 

A. He complained of the expense of governing 
Ireland, and demanded money. 

Q. What did the Irish deputies answer ? 

A. That their constituents had expressly pro- 
hibited them from granting his majesty any ; on 
which the king dismissed them. 

Q. Was the rest of his reign prosperous ? 

A. No. The barons, by their wars and ex- 
actions, rendered prosperity impossible. 

Q. Were the contentious Irish chiefs and 
Anglo-Irish nobles worse than the same class of 
men in other lands 1 

A. No. In the days of the Heptarchy, we 
find that the petty kings of England were en- 
gaged in constant warfare. In later times, that 
country was ravaged by repeated civil wars. And 
in Scotland, we find that the quarrels of the 
Scottish nobles involved the kingdom in perpet- 
ual bloodshed for centuries. 

Q. In what year did Edward the Third die ? 

A. In 1377. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 47 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Reign of Richard the Second. 

Q. Did King Richard the Second visit Ireland? 

A. He did, in the hope of quelling the dis- 
turbances. 

Q. How was he received on his arrival ? 

A. The Irish chiefs and the Anglo-Irish lords 
hastened to pay him their homage and allegiance. 
Richard made a royal progress through the king- 
dom, with great parade, and at profuse expense. 

Q. What treaty did Richard make with Mac 
Murrough, prince of Leinster 1 

A. He stipulated that Mac Murrough and all 
his followers should quit Leinster by a certain day, 
having surrendered all their territories there to his 
majesty, his heirs and successors. 

Q. What compensation did King Richard give 
Mac Murrough, for this vast surrender ? 

A. His majesty gave full license and encour- 
agement to Mac Murrough to seize upon all such 
territories belonging to the Irish septs in any other 
part of the realm as he could grasp by violence. 
He also undertook to pay Mac Murrough an an- 
nual pension of eighty marks. 

Q. Did Richard hold a parliament in Ireland 1 

A. He did — in 1395. 

Q. What measures did he take whilst in the 
kingdom 1 

A. Wiser and more just ones than his extra- 
ordinary treaty with Mac Murrough could lead us 
to expect. He provided learned and upright 
judges for the courts of law ; and he tried to con- 
ciliate the four chief Irish princes, by conferring 



48 CATECHISM OF THE 

upon them the order of knighthood, and enter- 
taining them at a banquet at his own table. It 
appears, from a letter which he wrote from Dublin 
to his English council, that he saw the advantages 
which might result from a milder mode of dealing 
with the ancient clans than had been used by any 
previous monarch. 

Q. Whom did Richard appoint as lord lieu- 
tenant ? 

A. His kinsman, the young earl of March. 

Q. Did March find the Irish obedient 1 

A. No ; as soon as Richard quitted Ireland, 
several clans broke out in revolt. 

Q. Did Mac Murrough evacuate Leinster ac- 
cording to his treaty? 

A. No ; and when required to do so, he took 
up arms against the lord lieutenant, who was 
slain in an engagement with the O' Byrnes and 
Kavanaghs.* 

Q. When this news reached Richard, what 
steps did he take 1 

A. He proceeded once more to Ireland, in 
order to chastise Mac Murrough and the confed- 
erated clans. 

Q. Did Richard succeed ? 

A. No ; Mac Murrough was safe in his moun- 
tain fastnesses, and could not be brought to an 
open engagement. Richard's forces were unable 
to dislodge the clans from their rocky glens and 
dense forests ; and as the country had been greatly 
wasted, provisions were almost unattainable ; so 
that numbers of the English army perished from 
famine. 

Q. What was Richard's next measure ? 

* Mac Murrough was chief of the Kavanagna. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 49 

A. Finding himself obliged to retreat from his 
harassing enemy, he proposed to enter on a new 
treaty with Mac Murrough. 

Q. How did Mac Murrough receive this pro- 
posal 1 

A. With scornful defiance. 

Q. What then happened to Richard 1 

A. He was obliged to return to England to 
oppose Henry of Bolingbroke, Duke of Lancaster, 
who, during the king's absence from that country, 
had landed there to claim the crown. Richard 
was betrayed into the power of Lancaster, and 
thrown into prison, where he shortly afterwards 
died. 



CHAPTER IX. 
Reigns of Henry IV., F., and VI. 

Q. What events occurred in Ireland in the 
reign of Henry the Fourth 1 

A. The Irish chiefs very much enlarged their 
power. 

Q. Did the Irish lords of English descent be- 
come more national than they had previously 
been 1 

A. Yes ; they began to feel that they were 
Irishmen. They, in fact, became Irish chieftains; 
and they intermarried frequently with the old 
Milesian families. 

Q. Was there not a law forbidding such mar- 
riages ? 

A. Yes ; but that law was now no longer ob- 
served. 

6 



50 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. On what terms did the barons stand with; 
the chiefs of native lineage ? 

A. Many of them paid to the chiefs a fixed 
tribute (equivalent to the Scotch black-mail), and 
received their protection in return. 

Q. Did the English parliament look upon the 
Anglo-Irish families with enmity .' 

A. Yes ; that parliament classed them to- 
gether with the rest of the Irish people, in a 
statute whereby it forbade " all Irish adventurers 
whatsoever " to come into England ; at the same 
time ordering all who had already come to depart 
thence without delay. 

Q. Did this law extend to all the Irish, without 
any exception ? 

A. Yes. It even included the sons of the Irish 
nobility, who were then studying in the English 
inns of court and universities. 

Q. What effect did this act of banishment pro- 
duce on those who were the objects of it ? 

A. The Irish nobility and gentry, stung with 
the affront, returned home to their own country, 
and used all the means in their power to annoy 
the government. 

Q. Were measures then changed ? 

A. Yes; the king (Henry the Sixth) appointed 
the earl of Ormond lord lieutenant of Ireland. 

Q. Was that a politic appointment ? 

A. In some respects it was. He produced 
peace at first by his wise measures. But after 
some time he became embroiled with the earl of 
Desmond, who mustered sufficient force to give 
him battle, and after a tedious campaign, a truce 
was agreed to by both parties. 

Q. Did Ormond long continue }ord lieu- 
tenant 1 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 51 

A. No ; his rivals had interest enough to pre- 
vail on the king to remove him ; and Talbot, earl 
of Shrewsbury, was appointed in his place. 

Q. Who succeeded Shrewsbury, in the year 
1449? 

A. Richard, duke of York. 

Q. Was he a good viceroy ? 

A. One of the very best who ever ruled Ire- 
land. He observed strict good faith in his treaties 
with the Irish chiefs ; he felt for the wrongs of the 
peasantry, and tried to improve their condition. 

Q. What circumstance called the duke of 
York from Ireland? 

A. He went to England in order to defend 
himself against a false charge that had been 
made ; namely, that he had encouraged the rebel- 
lion of a man named Jack Cade and his party. 

Q. What occurred in England 1 

A. There was a rebellion against Henry the 
Sixth, who was thrown into prison, and the royal 
power was transferred to the duke of York. 

Q. How long did the duke retain it ? 

A. Not long. Queen Margaret assembled the 
friends of her imprisoned husband, and gained a 
victory over the Yorkists, at Blore Heath. 

Q. What was the duke's next step ? 

A. He fled for safety to Ireland. 

Q. How was he received there 1 

A. With the greatest joy. The Irish parlia- 
ment passed an act attaching the guilt of high 
treason to any attempt that should be made to 
molest or disturb the duke or his followers, under 
pretext of writs from England ; for the English 
parliament had previously attainted him. 

Q. Was the Irish act for his protection vio- 
lated ? 



52 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. It was; by a follower of the earl of Or- 
mond. The delinquent was forthwith executed. 

Q. What was the duke's ultimate fate ? 

A. He returned to England, with a numerous 
following of his Irish adherents, to strike a blow 
for the crown ; but was slain, and his army routed 
by superior numbers, at the battle of Wakefield. 

Q. What declaration did the Irish parliament 
make in the 38th year of the reign of King Henry 
the Sixth ? 

A. The Irish parliament in that year declared 
its own independence on England. 

Q. In what terms? 

A. The two houses declared that " Ireland is, 
and always has been, incorporated within itself by 
ancient laws and customs ; and is only to be gov- 
erned by such laws as by the lords and commons 
of the land, in parliament assembled, have been 
advised, accepted, affirmed and proclaimed." They 
also declared, " that by custom, privilege, and 
franchise, there has ever been a royal seal peculiar 
to Ireland, to which alone the king's subjects are 
to pay obedience." 

Q. What was the final result of the civil war 
in England? 

A. Notwithstanding the exertions of Queen 
Margaret, her husband's power was utterly de- 
stroyed ; and the throne was usurped by Edward, 
(of York,) fourth king of that name, in the year 
1461. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 63 

CHAPTER X. 
Reigns of Edward IV. and V., and Richard III. 

Q. What was the condition of Ireland in the 
reign of Edward the Fourth 1 

A. At that time the Irish people — thereby 
meaning not only the Milesian clans, but also the 
descendants of the Norman invaders who had be- 
come thoroughly Irish in their language, names, 
manners, and sentiments — were so strong, as 
compared with the small English colony of occu- 
pation, that they could with the utmost ease have 
acquired for themselves the supreme government 
of the kingdom. 

Q. And what prevented them from doing so ? 

A. Their old sin of mutual discord, mutual 
enmity, mutual distrust. They would not com- 
bine with each other for a common and general 
purpose. 

Q. Had many of the Anglo-Norman families 
then adopted the Irish name and nation ? 

A. Yes ; very many. And to them, as also to 
the Irish chiefs inhabiting the borders of the Eng- 
lish pale, or district, did the English inhabitants 
continue, in this reign, to pay the black-mail, or 
tribute, for protection from the lawless violence 
of freebooters. 

Q. How did the English government at this 
time use such influence as it possessed ? 

A. Its influence was used, as was generally the 
case, to insult and oppress the Irish people ; which 
it could not have done if it were not for the weak- 
ness arising from the divisions of the people them- 
selves. 

5* 



54 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What oppressive measures were enacted ? 

A. In the year 1463, a parliament held at 
Trim by Fitz-Eustace, lord Portlester, made a 
law, " that any body may kill thieves or robbers, 
or any person going to rob or steal, having no 
faithful men of good name and in the English 
dress in their company." 

Q. What were the results of this law ? 

A. It gave a great facility to the English in- 
habitants to murder their Irish neighbors ; since 
it was sufficient justification for the crime to allege 
" that the deceased had been going to rob or 
steal." 

Q. What other enactment was made by that 
parliament ? 

A. It enacted, on pain of forfeiture of goods, 
that all the Irish who inhabited the English dis- 
trict should take English names, wear the English 
dress, and swear allegiance. 

Q. What other act was passed against the 
people in this reign ? 

A. In a parliament over which the English 
bishop of Meath, William Sherwood, presided, it 

\was enacted that any Englishman, injured by any 
Irishman beyond the pale, might avenge himself 
on the entire clan to which the aggressor be- 
longed. 

Q. What circumstances prevented all the in- 
habitants of Ireland from making common cause 
with each other, and blending together in one 
great national mass 1 

A. We have seen already that the unhappy dis- 
position of the people to quarrel among them- 
selves fatally weakened them. But there was 
another cause. 

Q. What was that? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 55 

A. The nature of the government, which was 
almost always opposed to the people, and regarded 
them not as friends and subjects, but as enemies. 
This adverse power was sustained, not only by the 
mutual jealousies which it fomented amongst the 
people, but also by fresh streams of English ad- 
venturers, who continually poured into the country, 
bringing with them a perpetual supply of bitter 
hatred to the natives. 

Q. What lesson do we learn from this 1 

A. That we, — the Irish people, — must cast 
aside all jealousies of every sort whatsoever, of 
race, of creed, and of parti/; and stand firmly 
(but peaceably) together : otherwise we can never 
obtain for our country the first of all political 
blessings — self-government. 

Q. Does not the conquest* of Ireland by the 
Anglo-Normans destroy the right of the Irish 
people to a resident Irish parliament 1 

A. No more than the conquest of England by 
the Normans destroyed the right of the English 
people to a resident English parliament. Our 
right is as ancient as theirs, and we never, by any 
act of ours, surrendered it. 

Q. "What was the fate, in this reign, of the 
earl of Ormond ? 

A. King Edward beheaded him for having 
favored the late monarch, Henry the Sixth. 

Q. Did the old clan-feud between the Butlers 
and Geraldines still continue 1 

A. Yes ; and the former were freshly exasper- 



* I do not use the word " conquest " in its military meaning, 
in which sense it certainly cannot be applied to the proceed- 
ings of Strongbow and Henry the Second, in Ireland. I merely 
use the phrase as expressive of the fact, that the anti-national 
party got the upper hand in Ireland. 



56 CATECHISM OF THE 

ated by the attainder and execution of the earl, 
their chieftain. 

Q. What were, at this time, the war-cries of 
the several clans 1 

A. " Croom-aboo! " was the war-shout of 
the Geraldines ; literally meaning " Hurrah for 
Croom ! " from the castle of that name in the 
county Limerick belonging to the earl of Kildare. 
In like manner, " Butler-aboo! " was the war-cry 
of the followers of Ormond ; " Shannat-aboo ! " 
was that of the Geraldines of Desmond, from the 
castle of Shannat, where their chief, the great 
earl, held a rude court. 

Q. What was the war-cry of the O'Brians of 
Thomond 1 

A. " Lamh-laider-aboo! " — or "Hurrah for 
the strong hand ! " 

Q. That of the O'Neills? 

A. " Lamh-dhearg-aboo ! " — or " Hurrah for 
the red (or bloody) hand ! " The Fitzpatricks 
of Ossory adopted, as their war-cry, " Gear-laider- 
aboo ! " — or, " Hurrah for the sharp and strong ! V 
And the gathering-shouts of all the clans con- 
tained similar allusions, either to the castles of 
their residence, or to some quality on which they 
prided themselves. 

Q. Of what description were the native Irish 
soldiery of that period ? 

A. The cavalry of the chiefs and barons were 
mounted on small, but very strong and active 
horses. These horses were called " hobbies," 
and their riders " hobellers." From all ancient 
accounts it appears that the Irish were eminently 
skilful as horsemen ; and active and dexterous in 
the use of their weapons on horseback. 

Q. What were their weapons 1 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 5? 

A. Short spears and sabres; also battle-axes. 
They had scarcely any armor. 

Q. Describe the foot-soldiers, or infantry. 

A. Of these there were two sorts ; a heavily 
armed infantry, called " galloglasses ; " accou- 
tered with iron head-pieces, efficient coats of 
armor, and bearing a broad axe and sword. 

Q. How were the light infantry accoutred ? 

A. They wore little or no armor save the iron 
head-piece ; they bore a long spear or javelin, and 
a long knife called a skian. 

Q. Did the quarrel of the Butlers and Geral- 
dines disturb this entire reign 1 

A. Yes ; their unhappy contentions were pro- 
tracted, with varying fortune; the Butlers some- 
times gaining the advantage, and the Geraldines 
again recovering the mastery. In reward of Des- 
mond's service in defeating the Butlers of Wex- 
ford, Edward made Desmond lord deputy of* 
Ireland. 

Q. What was his first act as lord deputy ? 

A. He made war upon the Irish septs in 
Meath. 

Q. Did he defeat them ? 

A, No; they took him prisoner. He was, 
however, soon set free by his friend O'Connor of 
O'Fally. 

Q. What was his next act ? 

A. He made war on O' Brian of Thomond. 

Q. With what success ? 

A. O'Brian gained a rapid advantage over the 
lord deputy, who bought him off by engaging that 
he should be paid a regular tribute. 

Q. Was Desmond removed from the govern- 
ment for these failures? 



58 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. No ; the king continued him in the viceroy- 
alty ; until at last the queen became his enemy. 

Q. How did he offend the queen 1 * 

A. By speaking incautiously of the meanness 
of her birth. 

Q. What steps were then taken to destroy him 1 

A. He was removed from his office; supplanted 
by lord deputy Tiptoft ; attainted by parliament on 
several charges, and executed without a trial. 

Q. Meanwhile, how did the Butlers conduct 
themselves ? 

A. John of Ormond, the late earl's eldest 
living brother, contrived to obtain the favor of 
the king. 

Q. What benefit did the Butler family derive 
from the royal favor 1 

A. An act of parliament was obtained, repeal- 
ing the former act of attainder and forfeiture, and 
festoring the old honors and estates to the heir of 
Ormond. 

Q. How long did the Butlers continue upper- 
most? 

A. Not very long; we find the earl of Kildare 
made lord deputy in 1478. 

Q. Did not the king desire to remove Kildare, 
and appoint Lord Grey to that office? 

A. He did ; but Kildare held the office in de- 
fiance of the king ; and so strongly was he sup- 
ported, that the viceroy appointed by the king was 
obliged to quit Ireland. 

Q. What Milesian alliance did the earl of Kil- 
dare make 1 

A. He gave his daughter in marriage to the 
son of the chief of the O'Neills. 

* Elizabeth Grey. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 59 

Q What use did Kildare make of the influ- 
ence he gained by this connection ? 

A. He used his influence to preserve Ireland 
in peace during the short, feeble reign of Edward 
the Fifth, and the short reign of Richard the 
Third. 

Q. In what year did Richard the Third die 1 

A. He was slain at the battle of Bosworth, in 
1485. 



CHAPTER XI. 
The Reign of Henry VII 

Q. When Henry the Seventh ascended the 
throne, whom did he appoint lord lieutenant of 
Ireland ? 

A. He continued the earl of Kildare in that 
office. 

Q. What remarkable event occurred in Ireland 
in 1486 1 

A. A low impostor, named Simnel, arrived in 
Dublin, accompanied by one Richard Simons, an 
Oxford priest, who had trained him to personate 
the earl of Warwick. 

Q. Who was the earl of Warwick ? 

A. Son of the late duke of Clarence, and 
grandson of the duke of York who had been 
viceroy of Ireland. 

Q. Where was the earl of Warwick at that 
time? 

A. In the prison of the Tower of London. 

Q. Why did the king detain him there 1 

A. From his jealous fears lest Warwick, who 



60 CATECHISM OF THE 

was heir to the house of York, should lay claim to 
the throne. 

Q. How was the impostor, Simnel, received in 
Ireland 1 

A. His tale was believed. He was received by 
Kildare, and many other leading Irishmen, as their 
lawful king ; and, as such, he was crowned in 
Dublin, under the title of Edward the Sixth. 

Q. What then became of him 1 

A. He went to England to give battle to Henry 
the Seventh; was defeated and made prisoner, 
and employed by the king as a scullion in the 
royal kitchen. 

Q. How did the Irish lords and chiefs employ 
themselves 1 

A. In petty wars. 

Q. Mention some of them. 

A. The Geraldines of Desmond defeated the 
M'Carthys and O'Carrols, and obtained large 
tracts of their lands. The lord lieutenant's broth- 
er-in-law, O'Neill, went to war with the chief of 
Tyrconnell. 

Q. What was their quarrel about 1 

A. Tribute. O'Neill had written to Tyrcon- 
nell, "Send me tribute; or else " To this 

Tyrconnell answered, " I owe you none ; and 
if » 

Q. What was the result of the war that fol- 
lowed ? 

A. The clan of the O'Neills were defeated. 

Q. Who was Perkin Warbeck ? 

A. He was an impostor, calling himself duke 
of York, the second son of Edward the Fourth. 

Q. When did he land in Ireland ? 

A. He landed at Cork in 1492. 

Q. Did he raise any faction in Ireland? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 61 

A. Nowhere except among the citizens of 
Cork. 

Q. How long did he remain in Ireland ? 

A. Only for a few weeks, at the end of which 
he departed to France. 

Q. Who was lord lieutenant in 1494 1 

A. Sir Edward Poynings. 

Q. What was enacted by the remarkable law 
called " Poynings's Act? " 

A. It enacted that, prior to the holding of any 
parliament in Ireland, the lord lieutenant and 
privy council should first certify to the king the 
causes of assembling such parliament ; specifying 
also such acts as they deemed it requisite to pass. 

Q. Was this law an infraction of the rights of 
the king's Irish subjects ? 

A. Yes ; a very grievous one. 

Q. But did the Irish thereby, in any degree, 
forfeit their full inherent right to self-legisla- 
tion? 

A. By no means; any more than the English 
nation would forfeit their right to self-government 
by any servile surrender of power on the part of 
their parliament. 

Q. What is the duty of the people in regard 
to all such unjust laws ? 

A. To obey them so long as they are laws; 
but to struggle in every legal, peaceful mode to 
get them repealed. 

Q. Did Perkin Warbeck land again in Ire- 
land? 

A. He did ; but being defeated at Waterford, 
he fled to Scotland. 

Q. Did the Butlers, at this time, try to ruin 
the earl of Kildare? 

A. Yes; they had got him attainted by Poy- 
6 



62 CATECHISM OF THE 

nings's parliament, and he now was obliged to 
meet his accuser in the king's presence. 

Q. In what year was that 1 

A. In the year 1496. 

Q. When the parties were met, what did the 
king say to Kildare 1 

A. He advised him to procure for himself the 
help of able counsel. 

Q. What was Kildare's answer 1 

A. ** I choose the best counsel in the realm," 
said he, seizing the king's hand. " I take your 
majesty to be my counsel against these false 
knaves." 

Q. Did the king resent this freedom ? 

A. No ; he .looked on it as a proof that Kil- 
dare was honest. 

Q. What was alleged against Kildare ? 

A. High treason was alleged against him, but 
he easily cleared himself. 

Q. Was any other charge made ? 

A. Yes ; he was accused of burning the church 
of Cashel. 

Q. What was his defence 1 

A. " It is true," said he, " that I burned the 
church. But I did so because I thought the arch- 
bishop was in it. 

Q. What effect did this defence produce ? 

A. The oddity of it convulsed the king and all 
present with laughter. 

Q. What did Kildare's accusers then say ? 

A. " All Ireland," said they, " cannot govern 
this earl." 

Q. What was the king's answer? 

A. " Then this earl shall govern all Ireland ; " 
whereupon he immediately made Kildare lord 
lieutenant of the kingdom. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 63 

Q. How did Kildare discharge the duties of 
that office ? 

A. As soon as he was taken into the king's 
confidence, he went to war against his own fellow- 
countrymen. 

Q. Where — and on what account? 

A. He brought the king's troops against his 
son-in-law, Ulick De Burgo, in Connaught, to 
punish that chief for maltreating his wife, who 
was Kildare's daughter. 

Q. What clans assisted De Burgo 1 

A. The O'Brians, and other tribes from 
Munster. 

Q. Who were Kildare's confederates ? 

A. All the Geraldines, many lords of the pale, 
and his ally and relative O'Neill, with a numerous 
following. 

Q. Where was the quarrel decided ? 

A. At the battle of Knocktow, near Galway. 

Q. Who gained the victory ? 

A. Kildare. 

Q. What remarkable proof of the ancient 
English hatred of Irishmen did Lord Gormanstown 
then give? 

A. After the battle, he said to Kildare, " We 
have beaten our enemies ; but in order to finish 
the good work, we ought now to cut the throats 
of the Irish who have helped us to do so." 

Q. Was this advice acted on ? 

A. No ; it would have been inconvenient, for 
it would have weakened the conquering party 
very much. 

Q. Was there any other reason for not acting 
on it? 

A. Yes; the bad feeling expressed by Lord 
Gormanstown was not then very general : it had 



64 CATECHISM OF THE 

been softened away by many intermarriages be- 
tween the ancient Irish clans and the Anglo-Irish 
families. 

Q. Are there any Lord Gormanstowns in Ire- 
land at the present day ? 

A. Unluckily there are ; there are many un- 
natural Irishmen who hate their native land, and 
are ever ready to help the English government to 
oppress and spoliate their own fellow-countrymen. 

Q. What is the reason of this ? 

A. Because the power that rules Ireland is an 
English, not an Irish power ; and so long as the 
ruling power is unfriendly, so long will every 
base, bad spirit in the land adopt that unfriend- 
liness, in order to pay its court to the ruling 
influence. 

Q. In what year did Henry the Seventh die? 

A. In 1509. 



CHAPTER XII. 
The Reign of Henry VIII. 

Q. Did King Henry the Eighth continue Kil- 
dare as lord deputy ? 

A. Yes ; until Kildare happened to incur the 
jealousy of Cardinal Wolsey, on which that 
prelate procured his removal. 

Q. Who was appointed in his place ? 

A. The earl of Surrey. 

Q. What events took place in this reign ? 

A. Ormond had invaded the territory of Osso- 
ry, and plundered Mac Gilla Patrick, or Fitz- 
Patrick, the prince of it. 

Q. What steps did Fitz-Patrick take? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 65 

A. He sent an envoy to the king to state his 
complaints. 

Q. Did the king interfere in the case 1 

A. No ; Ormond was allowed to ravage Os- 
sory with impunity. 

Q. What, at last, checked him 1 

A. The power of Kildare, who contrived to 
make his peace with the king, and was reappoint- 
ed lord deputy. 

Q. Meanwhile, how was the earl of Desmond 
acting 1 

A. He assumed the dignity and privileges of a 
sovereign prince. 

Q. In what manner 1 

A. He claimed a right to absent himself from 
parliament; and also of being never obliged to 
enter a fortified town. 

Q. What use was made of these claims to 
sovereignty? 

A. Francis, king of France, learning Des- 
mond's pretensions, endeavored to raise a domes- 
tic commotion in Ireland through his agency, for 
the purpose of embarrassing England. 

Q. How did Desmond receive the French 
king's proposals 1 

A. His vanity was flattered at being treated as 
a sovereign prince by so powerful a monarch, and 
he entered into an alliance with Francis. 

Q. What were the results ? 

A. Before the treaty could be acted upon, 
Francis was taken prisoner at the battle of Pavia. 

Q. And what became of Desmond 1 

A. The king determined to punish him, and 
sent orders to Kildare to that effect. 

Q. Did Kildare execute the orders ? . 

A. No; he did not like to be made the agent 
6* 



66 CATECHISM OF THE 

of his kinsman's punishment ; and taking advan 
tage of some riots in Ulster, he marched into that 
province under pretext of suppressing them. 

Q. Did the king resent Kildare's disobedience? 

A. Yes; he required him to proceed to London 
to account for his conduct. 

Q. What arrangements did Kildare make ? 

A. He supplied all his own castles with arms 
and ammunition from the king's stores. He com- 
mitted the government to his son Lord Thomas 
Fitzgerald, who was only twenty years of age ; 
and he then proceeded to London. 

Q. How was he treated on arriving in London ? 

A. He was imprisoned in the Tower. 

Q. How did his son, Lord Thomas, act in 
Ireland? 

A. Having been excited by a false report of 
his father's execution, Lord Thomas rushed into 
the privy-council chamber in Dublin, followed by 
one hundred and forty armed retainers, and there 
renounced his allegiance to King Henry. 

Q. What was Lord Thomas's next step ? 

A. He quitted the astonished council, and pro- 
ceeded to wage war on the garrison of Dublin. 

Q. With what success ? 

A. He was, at first, easily defeated, from the 
fewness of his supporters ; but retiring from Dub- 
lin, and joining the O'Connors and O'Neills, he 
speedily increased his power. 

Q. What steps were taken against him ? 

A. The new lord lieutenant, Sir William Skef- 
fington, besieged the castle of Maynooth, the best 
stronghold of the Fitzgeralds. 

Q. Did the castle make a gallant defence ? 

A. Y.es; it held out for fourteen days; and 
Skeffington was about to retire from before it, 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 67 

when it was placed in his power by the treachery 
(as is alleged) of the foster-brother of Lord 
Thomas. 

Q. How did Skeffington reward the traitor ? 

A. He paid him the stipulated price of his 
treachery, and then had him hanged. 

Q. What effect did the taking of Maynooth 
produce on Lord Thomas's fortunes 1 

A. Many of his followers, dispirited at the 
news, dispersed ; but with those who still re- 
mained, he made himself so formidable in an ir- 
regular warfare among the defiles and woods, that 
Lord Grey, the English commander, solemnly 
promised him protection if he should surrender 
himself. 

Q. Did Lord Thomas confide in the English- 
man's promise 1 

A. He did, and gave himself up. 

Q. How did Lord Grey then treat him 1 

A. He sent him prisoner to England. 

Q. How else did he treat the Fitzgeralds 1 

A. He invited five uncles of Lord Thomas to 
a feast ; in the midst of which he treacherously 
seized them, and sent them in custody to England. 

Q. What was Henry's conduct to these five 
unoffending men 1 

A. He had them all hanged at Tyburn, togeth- 
er with the unfortunate Lord Thomas. 

Q. What great event took place in this reign ? 

A. The king rejected the pope's supremacy 
over the church, and set up his own supremacy 
in place of it. 

Q. Did many of the Irish people abandon the 
Catholic, and embrace the Protestant, religion ? 

A. Scarcely any ; the great bulk of the people 
adhered to the old Catholic faith; some few 



68 CATECHISM OF THE 

persons in connection with the government adopt- 
ed the new religion. 

Q. What were the effects of this change of 
religion on the country 1 

A. It gave some new pretexts to the English 
disposition to spoliate and persecute Ireland. But 
in truth England, whether Catholic or Protestant, 
had, at all times since their connection, treated 
Ireland with treachery and cruelty. 

Q. How did the government dispose of the 
property that had belonged to the Catholic church 1 

A. They transferred the tithes to the Protestant 
clergy, and the greater portion of the abbey lands 
to powerful laymen ; thus throwing on the Catho- 
lic people of Ireland the support of two churches: 
their own, and the new one. 

Q. What was the fate of Lord Deputy Grey 1 

A. Some charges having been made against 
him, he was convicted, and hanged at Tyburn by 
the orders of Henry. 

Q. In what year did Henry die 1 

A. In 1537. 



CHAPTER XIII. 
Reigns of Edward VI. and Mary I. 

Q. What was the first exploit of the new king's 
government in Ireland? 

A. Some disturbances having been excited in 
Leix and Offalley, the English government in- 
duced the chiefs of those districts, O'Moore and 
O'Connor, to proceed to England; promising that 
Edward would show them favor similar to that 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. (39 

which his father had shown to O'Neill in like 
circumstances. 

Q. Did the chiefs confide in this promise ? 

A. Yes ; and they accordingly repaired to 
London. 

Q. Did the English government perform their 
promises ? 

A. No; O'Moore and O'Connor were thrown 
into prison, and their lands were seized and given 
to English adventurers. 

Q. What became of those chiefs ? 

A. O'Moore soon died in prison ; O'Connor 
lingered out some weary years in his confine- 
ment. 

Q. What was the next measure of the govern- 
ment? 

A. They tried to propagate the Reformation 
in Ireland. 

Q. How did they begin 1 

A. Saint Leger was sent as lord deputy to 
Ireland for that purpose. 

Q. What means were used under his auspices ? 

A. In Athlone a band of soldiers proceeded 
from the garrison to ravage the old church of 
Clonmacnoise. Similar acts of riot and outrage 
were committed in various other ecclesiastical 
buildings throughout the kingdom. 

Q. In what year did Edward the Sixth die 1 

A. In 1553. 

Q. Who succeeded him ? 

A. His sister, Mary Tudor. 

Q. Did she favor the Reformation? 

A. No; in England she cruelly persecuted 
its professors, and caused numbers to be burned 
to death for their belief. 

Q. How did the Irish Catholics act, when 



70 CATECHISM OF THE 

their old religion was restored to its ancient 
power and possessions in this reign? 

A. They acted with the utmost forbearance. 
They did not injure a single person in the slightest 
particular for professing a creed that differed from 
their own ; and when the blood-thirsty queen was 
persecuting the Protestants in England, the Cath- 
olic corporation of Dublin opened 74 houses in 
Dublin at their own expense, to receive and 
shelter the Protestants who sought refuge in Ire- 
land from the fury of the English government. 

Q. What do you think of such conduct ? 

A. That it was a glorious proof of Irish 
tolerance and charity; and fully demonstrated 
the fitness of the Irish Catholics for religious 
freedom. 

Q. Did the clans of Leix and Offalley, who had 
been deprived of their lands in the reign of 
Edward, appeal to Queen Mary to restore them ? 

A, Yes. 

Q. What was the answer given by the govern- 
ment? 

A. They sent a strong military force to extir- 
pate the inhabitants from the soil of their fore- 
fathers ; and the troops committed the most 
horrible barbarities, which ended in a general 
massacre of the people. 

Q. Were any saved ? 

A. Yes ; a small remnant, whom the earls of 
Ossory and Kildare exerted themselves to protect. 

Q. What were the districts thenceforth called ? 

A. " King's County," and " Queen's County ; " 
and their principal towns were named " Philips- 
town," and " Maryborough," in honor of the 
sovereign and her husband. 

Q. In what year did Queen Mary die ? 

A In 1558. 



IHSTORY OF IRELAND. 71 

CHAPTER XIV. 

The Reign of Queen Elizabeth. 

Q. In what state was Ireland at the time of 
Queen Elizabeth's accession 1 

A. In a state of universal disturbance. 

Q. What cause disturbed Connaught? 

A. The two great branches of the house of 
De Burgo were struggling with each other for 
the mastery. 

Q. What circumstances agitated Leinster ? 

A. The remnant that had escaped from the 
massacre in Leix and OrTalley roamed over that 
entire province in small parties, marauding where- 
ever they could, to indemnify themselves for their 
losses and sufferings. 

Q. What contentions existed in Munster 1 

A. The chieftaincy of the northern division 
of the province was warmly contested between 
the earl of Thomond and Daniel O'Bryan. The 
Butlers and Geraldines were also at war with each 
other. 

Q. In what condition was Ulster 1 

A. John O'Neill was speedily acquiring the 
dominion of the whole of Ulster. 

Q. Whom did Elizabeth appoint as lord lieu- 
tenant ? 

A. The earl of Sussex; who, on departing for 
England, entrusted his government to the hands 
of Sir Henry Sidney. 

Q. Did Sidney call upon O'Neill to account 
for his proceedings ? 

A. Yes; he invited him to the English camp 
for the purpose of a conference. 



72 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. Did O'Neill accept the invitation ? 

A. No; he remembered how O'Moore and 
O'Connor had been entrapped, and he v/isely 
declined. 

Q. What, then, was his answer to Sidney 1 

A. He excused himself by saying he was 
engaged in having his child christened with due 
pomp ; and he invited Sidney to attend the cere- 
mony as the infant's godfather. 

Q. Did Sidney comply 1 

A. He did; and he was much surprised at 
the courtly magnificence with which the Irish 
chieftain entertained him. 

Q. How did they arrange the dispute between 
O'Neill and the government 1 

A. O'Neill, by the statement of his wrongs, 
made a very favorable impression upon Sidney, who 
advised him to rely for full justice on Elizabeth's 
sense of honor and of right. 

Q. Did O'Neill agree to leave matters to the 
queen's decision 1 

A. He did; and he and Sidney parted from 
each other on terms of friendship. 

Q. Did Sussex soon return from England ? 

A. Yes ; and, according to Elizabeth's instruc- 
tions, he immediately set about procuring laws to 
be passed for the establishment of the new English 
religion ; which, during the reign of Mary, had 
been deprived of the tithes and other state en- 
dowments. 

Q. What acts were passed for this purpose ? 

A. The appointment of bishops was vested in 
the sovereign ; and heavy penalties were inflicted 
upon all who would not attend the new worship. 

Q. How were the priesthood treated 1 

A. They were expelled from their cures by 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 73 

the civil power ; and Protestant clergymen, who 
had come in large numbers from England, were 
put into their places. 

Q. What were O'Neill's measures all this 
while? 

A. He set out to London, attended by a band 
of galloglasses, whose appearance at the court of 
Elizabeth excited great curiosity. 

Q. How did Elizabeth receive him ? 

A. With the most flattering courtesy and favor. 
She promised to support his claims to the best of 
her power. 

Q. Did Elizabeth keep this promise ? 

A. It is probable that at the time she intended 
to keep it ; but, notwithstanding the manifest 
loyalty of his conduct, she listened to his enemies 
who impeached his intentions ; and they, encour- 
aged by an expression which she used, proceeded 
to effect his ruin. 

Q. What was that expression ? 

A. "If O'Neill rebels," said the queen, "it 
will be all the better for my servants, for there will 
be estates enough for them who lack." On which, 
Elizabeth's Irish government determined to goad 
O'Neill into rebellion. 

Q. How did they begin ? 

A. Sir Henry Sidney, who was now lord 
deputy, established a garrison of English troops at 
Derry. 

Q. What right had O'Neill to complain of 
that? 

A. It was a needless insult to him. The coun- 
try being perfectly tranquil at the time, no troops 
were required to check disturbance ; and the 
planting a garrison in the midst of O'Neill's coun- 
try showed a want of reliance on the good faith 
7 



CATECHISM OF THE 

of the promises he had made to the queen's gov- 
ernment. 

Q. What did O'Neill resolve to do ? 

A. He resolved to get rid of the English gar- 
rison. 

Q. How did he manage to do so? 

A. He contrived to make them begin hostili- 
ties, and then sent to the lord deputy a bitter com- 
plaint of their conduct; at the same time propos- 
ing a conference at Dundalk, to adjust all differ- 
ences. 

Q. Did the conference take place ? 

A. No; before it could possibly be held, the 
powder magazine at Derry was accidentally blown 
up, and the English garrison were obliged to quit 
the town. 

Q. Did O'Neill then carry on the war against 
the government ? 

A. He did, but ineffectually, as he found him- 
self deserted by the chiefs on whose support he had 
relied with confidence. 

Q. Was their defection owing to English in- 
trigue ? 

A. Yes ; O'Neill found, to his cost, that the 
English garrison at Derry had been busily en- 
gaged in sowing the seeds of disaffection to him, 
from the first moment of their settlement. 

Q. What was his fate ? 

A. He perished by the treachery of Piers, an 
English officer, who induced the Scotch com- 
mandant of a garrison stationed at Clan-hu-boy, 
to take advantage of a preconcerted quarrel at 
a banquet, to massacre O'Neill and his followers. 

Q. What reward did Piers receive for his 
treachery ? 

A. He received the sum of one thousand marks 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 75 

from the government, on sending the head of 
O'Neill to the lord deputy. 

Q. What became of O'Neill's estates ? 

A. They were divided amongst the managers 
of the queen's Irish government. 

Q. Who was the next great Irish lord on whose 
destruction the government were resolved ? 

A. The earl of Desmond. 

Q. How was this managed ? 

A. In a quarrel between Desmond and Ormond 
about the boundaries of their estates, Lord Deputy 
Sidney, to whom the dispute had been referred, 
decided at first in favor of Desmond ; but, on 
receiving the queen's orders to reexamine the 
case, Sidney not only decided this second time in 
favor of Ormond, but loaded Desmond with all 
the expenses his rival had incurred. 

Q. Did Desmond obey this new decision 1 

A. No, for he felt it was grossly unjust. 

Q. How was he then treated 1 

A. He was seized by the lord deputy, and, after 
some delay, sent as a prisoner to the Tower of 
London, where he was kept in captivity for many 
years. 

Q. What disturbances followed ? 

A. Many serious ones ; Munster and Ulster be- 
came embroiled ; the former, with the claims of 
the earl of Clancarthy to the princedom of the 
province ; the latter, with the struggles of Tur- 
lough O'Neill to augment his authority. 

Q. What efforts did the Geraldines of Des- 
mond make to avenge the imprisonment of the 
earl, their chief? 

A. They are said to have negotiated with their 
old foes, the followers of Ormond, to effect a gen- 
eral insurrection. 



76 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What steps were taken, meanwhile, by the 
government ? 

A. They ordered Sir Peter Carew to lead his 
army against the Butlers. He accordingly entered 
their country ; and meeting an unarmed concourse 
of people, who gazed with curiosity at his forces, 
he commanded a general massacre, and about four 
hundred defenceless, unresisting people were put 
to death. 

Q. Was massacre a familiar instrument of 
English government in those days? 

A. Yes ; massacres of the Irish people, by the 
agents of English power in this country, were 
frequent. 

Q. What were Elizabeth's plans with regard 
to Ulster ? 

A. She intended to despoil the old proprietors 
of their inheritance, and to plant the province 
with English colonies. 

Q. Who was the chief Englishman that visited 
Ireland to execute this scheme ? 

A. Walter, earl of Essex. 

Q. What was his character ? 

A. Treacherous and sanguinary ; he did not 
hesitate to commit any crime which he thought 
might weaken the Irish. 

Q. State an instance. 

A. He invited a chieftain of the race of O'Neill 
to a banquet, under the semblance of friendship, 
and then took the opportunity to murder his un- 
suspicious guest. 

Q. Did the scheme of planting Ulster with 
English colonies succeed 1 

A. Not to any considerable extent until the 
next reign. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 77 

Q. What remarkable incident occurred in 
1578? 

A. Fitzmaurice, one of the Geraldines of Des- 
mond, who had been treated with severity by the 
government, sought for foreign assistance against 
English power in several of the continental states. 

Q. Did he succeed ? 

A. He met no support from foreign sovereigns ; 
but he mustered a small band of about fourscore 
Spaniards, whom he headed in an invasion of 
Ireland. 

Q. Did the little armament land in Ireland ? 

A. Yes; upon the coast of Kerry. 

Q. What then happened 1 

A. Their ships were immediately seized by an 
English vessel of war. 

Q. What was the fate of this enterprise ? 

A. It was unsuccessful. 

Q. Was their insurrection sanctioned by the 
earl of Desmond 1 

A. No ; he had been released from the prison 
into which he had unjustly been thrown, and 
carefully avoided any step by which he might 
again incur the wrath of the government. 

Q. Did this prudence avail to protect him 1 

A. No; for the government were resolved to 
destroy him. 

Q. What was his offence 1 

A. The greatness of his estates; which the 
friends of the government were resolved to seize 
and divide amongst themselves. 

Q. In what manner was the war against Des- 
mond carried on by the government ? 

A. With the utmost ferocity and cruelty. It 
was, in truth, a succession of massacres comirm- 

ted on the people of that territory, diversified with 

7# 



78 CATECHISM OF THE 

the destruction of their houses and the wasting of 
their substance. 

Q. Did any succors arrive to Desmond ? 

A. Yes ; a Spanish force of 700 men landed at 
Golden Fort, on the coast of Kerry. 

Q. What was their fate ? 

A. They were blockaded in the fort, and then 
massacred in cold blood by the orders of Sir Wal- 
ter Raleigh. Among the apologists of this mas- 
sacre, is the English poet, Spenser. 

Q. What was the conduct of Admiral Winter ? 

A. He received into his fleet some miserable 
fugitives who sought refuge from the persecution. 

Q. Was the humane admiral censured for this 
conduct ? 

A. He was, by the ferocious party who sup- 
ported the government, and who thirsted for the 
extirpation of the people. 

Q. What was the conduct of Desmond, sur- 
rounded as he now was by enemies ? 

A. He made a gallant battle to the last, and in 
one of his sallies took the town of Youghal. 

Q. What finally was his fate ? 

A. His forces were overwhelmed by numbers ; 
and he himself was murdered by a traitor named 
Kelly, who discovered the aged earl in a hut, in 
which he had sought safety and concealment. 

Q. What was done with his head ? 

A. It was sent by Ormond to the queen ; and 
by her orders exposed on a stake at London 
Bridge. 

Q. Who was lord lieutenant of Ireland in 
1584? 

A. Sir John Perrot. 

^fc. What sort of parliament assembled in that 
year? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 79 

A. A thoroughly national one, in which the 
descendants of the aboriginal Irish clans sat side 
by side with the members of the Anglo-Norman 
families. 

Q. Did that parliament reject the measures of 
the court 1 

A. Yes ; they refused the supplies, and reject- 
ed several bills which had been introduced by the 
influence of the English privy-council. 

Q. What made them so refractory ? 

A. The horror they felt at the crimes commit- 
ted by the government in the war against Des- 
mond, who had been driven into insurrection by 
the arts of his enemies. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Reign of Elizabeth continued. 

Q. Who was Hugh O'Neill 1 

A. Nephew of the late earl of Tyrone. 

Q. What requests did he make of the govern- 
ment 1 

A. He petitioned for leave to take his seat in 
the house of lords, as earl of Tyrone; and he also 
prayed that his estates might be restored to him. 

Q. What was his claim upon the English gov- 
ernment 1 

A. His uniform loyalty to the crown. 

Q. Were his petitions granted by Elizabeth? 

A. Yes. 

Q. Did he long continue in the quiet enjoy- 
ment of his territories 1 

A. No ; the managers at Dublin Castle were 



80 CATECHISM OF THE 

resolved that his extensive estates should be di- 
vided amongst English adventurers ; and, with a 
view to effect his ruin, no means were left untried 
to drive him to rebel. 

Q. Meanwhile, what crimes did the new lord 
lieutenant, Sir William Fitz-William commit in 
Ulster 1 

A. He marched into Monaghan, seized on the 
chief of the Mac Mahons, had him tried and con- 
victed, on a false charge of high treason, by a jury 
of common soldiers, by whom the hapless chief 
was murdered on the spot. 

Q. What was the signal for open war against 
O'Neill ? 

A. He had been driven, by a variety of oppres- 
sions and petty hostilities, to attack the English 
garrison at Blackwater ; whereupon a force of 
2000 men, under the command of Sir John Nor- 
ris, was sent to oppose him. 

Q. Was the war against O'Neill at once suc- 
cessful ? 

A. Far from it. O'Neill renewed his attack 
upon the fort of Blackwater, of which, after a 
hot contest, he obtained the possession — as well 
as of the town of Armagh, which the English 
garrison evacuated without a struggle. 

Q. What was the loss upon the English side 
at Blackwater ? 

A. The English lost 1500 men, including many 
officers. The Irish obtained thirty-four standards, 
besides the entire arms, artillery, and ammunition 
of their enemies. 

Q. Was the English army totally destroyed 1 

A. No ; there was a remnant of it saved. 

Q. Through whose agency 1 

A. Through the valor of an Irish chief named 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 81 

O'Reilly, who had joined the royal cause against 
O'Neill. O'Reilly, at the head of his clan, cov- 
ered the retreat of the survivors of the English. 

Q. How did O'Neill then occupy himself? 

A. In combining together as many of his coun- 
trymen as he possibly could, for the purpose of 
resisting England. He also sent ambassadors to 
Spain, to solicit the aid of king Philip. 

Q. What measures did Elizabeth take ? 

A. She sent an army of 20,000 men to Ireland, 
under the command of Robert, earl of Essex. 

Q. Did Essex crush O'Neill? 

A. No ; he marched to the south, to quell 
the insurrection, which had spread into Munster. 

Q. What was the policy of the Irish ? 

A. They avoided a general engagement, but 
frequently defeated detached parties of the English 
army. 

Q. What was the most memorable of those 
triumphs ? 

A. A victory won by the O'Moore's, of Leix, 
over a large body of Essex's cavalry. From the 
great number of feathers lost by the English troops 
in that engagement, the Irish called the place the 
"Pass of Plumes." 

Q. Was there any other noted conflict in 
Leinster ? 

A. Yes ; the O'Byrnes overthrew another de- 
tachment of Essex's army, although the advantage 
in numbers was on the English side. 

Q. How did Elizabeth receive the news of 
these reverses ? 

A. She was enraged against Essex, and or- 
dered him to march to the north. 

Q. What was the fate of Sir Conyers Clifford ? 

A. While leading an army northward, to Jk~ 



82 CATECHISM OF THE 

aid of Lord Essex, Sir Conyers fell into an am- 
buscade prepared for him by the chief of the 
O'Ruarc's, and was slain. 

Q. How did the campaign of Essex end 1 

A. In an amicable conference which he held 
with O'Neill, upon a rising ground within view of 
both their armies. 

Q. What was the immediate result of that con- 
ference 1 

A. A truce for six weeks; during which Essex 
went to England, and the command of the Eng- 
lish army was entrusted to Sir George Carew, 
president of Munster, and Blount, Lord Mountjoy. 

Q. How did these leaders conduct the war ? 

A. With great barbarity ; especially Carew, 
whose natural disposition was cruel and ferocious. 
He ordered his troops to destroy the crops grow- 
ing in the fields, so that the wasting influence of 
famine came in aid of the English arms. He 
burned the houses in O'Neill's country, and mas- 
sacred their inhabitants. 

Q. Did he seek to draw the people to alle- 
giance to the queen 1 

A. No; and wherever an offer of allegiance 
was made by any of O'Neill's partisans, Carew 
would only accept it on the condition, that the 
party making the offer should first prove his title 
to admission by murdering one of his former con- 
federates ! 

Q. Did O'Neill receive help from Spain ? 

A. Two thousand Spaniards, under the com- 
mand of Don Juan D'Aquila, landed in the ex- 
treme south of the kingdom. 

Q. Were these Spanish auxiliaries of the slight- 
est use to O'Neill 1 

A. No; they were rather an incumbrance. Ha 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 83 

was obliged to march an army to their relief from 
the opposite end of the kingdom ; a task of dif* 
ficulty and danger. 

Q. What was the issue of the struggle 1 

A. O'Neill, urged by the foolish impatience of 
the Spanish commander, risked a premature attack 
upon Mountjoy; which, however, might have 
been successful, if his plans had not been betrayed 
by spies to the English general. 

Q. Was Mountjoy victorious 1 
. A. Yes ; notwithstanding the valiant exertions 
of O'Neill to recover the day. The Spaniards 
returned to their own country, O'Neill to Ulster ; 
and the slaughter of those who were unable to 
secure their safety by flight was most horrible and 
merciless. 

Q. Whither did the Irish lords who had been 
in arms against the queen direct their course 1 

A. To Spain, where many of their posterity 
are to be found at this day. 

Q. What was the ultimate fate of O'Neill ? 

A. The government still carried on the war 
against him in the north. The provisions of his 
followers had been destroyed by the English 
troops ; whilst his enemies obtained ample supplies 
from England. Unable to endure the sight of his 
own friends perishing daily around him from fam- 
ine, he entered into terms with the English, which 
Elizabeth, who was now in her death-sickness, 
ratified. 

Q. What was the cost of the Irish war to 
Elizabeth ? 

A. Three millions sterling, and the destruction 
of the flower of her army. And after all, the sub- 
jugation of Ireland was partial and imperfect. 

Q. In what respect does the mastery acquired 



84 CATECHISM OF THE 

by England over Ireland differ from the conquest 
of England itself by the Normans? 

A. The conquest of England by the Normans 
was rapid and complete; whereas the subjugation 
of Ireland has never been thoroughly accomplished 
even to the present day. 

Q. In what year did Elizabeth die? 

A. In the year 1603. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Reign of James the First 

Q. Who succeeded to the throne on the death 
of Elizabeth? 

A. James, king of Scotland. 

Q. How did James treat the great northern 
chiefs, O'Neill and O'Donnell ? 

A. He confirmed the former in his title of 
earl of Tyrone ; and revived, in favor of O'Don- 
nell, the earldom of Tyrconnell. 

Q. What salutary measures were adopted in 
Ireland by James ? 

A . He divided the whole kingdom into shire- 
ground, and settled the circuits of the judges on a 
permanent basis. 

Q. What evil measures did this king inflict 
upon Ireland ? 

A. He reenacted the severe penal laws against 
the Catholics; and he soon turned his mind to 
the project of plundering all the proprietors of 
land in Ulster of their estates, in order to sup- 
plant them with English and Scottish advp.ntnrpr B 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 85 

Q. How did the government commence their 
operations ? 

A. An anonymous letter was dropped in the 
privy-council chamber in Dublin Castle, impu- 
ting high treason to the two great Ulster lords, 
O'Neill and O'Donnell. 

Q. How did these two nobles act ? 

A. They fled to the continent. 

Q. Why? 

A. Because they felt certain that the govern- 
ment had resolved on their destruction. They 
had not now sufficient forces to give battle to 
James ; and they knew that if they stood their 
trial, a jury could be easily packed to convict 
them. 

Q. What extent of land did James thus con- 
fiscate in Ulster ? 

A. Three hundred and eighty-five thousand 
acres. 

Q. What was James's next step 1 

A. He summoned an Irish parliament, in order 
to obtain the sanction of law to his enormous 
wickedness. 

Q. Did the parliament ratify the criminal acts 
of the king 1 

A. A fairly chosen parliament would not have 
done so; but James packed the parliament in 
order to secure a majority in his own favor. 

Q. How did he manage 1 

A. He created forty new boroughs in one day, 
and the members returned for those boroughs 
were tutored to vote for the crown. [It is worthy 
of remark, that if it had not been for the creation 
of those forty close boroughs, the Union could 
never have been carried in the Irish house of 
commons.] 

8 



§6 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What next scheme of plunder was projected 
by the king? 

A. He issued what was called a " commission 
for the discovery of defective titles." 

Q. What was the object of this commission ? 

A. To detect pretended flaws in the titles of 
the Irish landed proprietors to their estates, in 
order that the crown might either seize the prop- 
erty, or else compel the possessors to pay heavy 
fines for new titles. 

Q. Who was placed at the head of this com- 



mission 



A. Sir William Parsons. 

Q. What was Parsons's mode of proceed- 
ing? 

A. Torture and subornation of perjury. In 
the celebrated case of the Byrnes of " the Rane- 
laghs," he suborned witnesses to swear an accu- 
sation of high treason against those gentlemen. 

Q. Did the witnesses swear willingly ? 

A. No; Sir William forced them to swear up 
to the mark by the infliction of the most horrible 
tortures. He had one witness, named Archer, 
placed on a gridiron over a charcoal fire, burned 
in several parts of his body with hot irons, and 
barbarously flogged, in order to compel the 
wretched man to swear against the two Byrnes, 
whom the court had resolved to despoil of their 
estates. 

Q. Did Archer yield ? 

A. Yes ; when he was tortured beyond his 
endurance, he promised to swear all that Parsons 
wished ; and by this diabolical proceeding, the 
proprietors were robbed of their inheritance. 

Q. Did James intend to confiscate Connaught? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 87 

A- Yes ; but ere he could effect his purpose, 
he was seized with an ague, and died. 
Q. In what year 1 
A. In 1625. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The Reign of Charles the First. 

Q. What was king Charles's conduct towards 
his Irish subjects ? 

A. He followed in his father's footsteps : — 
bigotted hostility to the Catholics, treachery in 
making promises which he did not intend to 
perform, and steady perseverance in the plunder 
of estates ; these were the leading features of his 
policy in Ireland. 

Q. What was the declaration of the Irish 
Protestant bishops in 1626? 

A. They declared that the toleration of " Po- 
pery " (by which they meant the Catholic religion) 
" was a grievous sin ; " and that all persons con- 
curring in such toleration became thereby involved 
in the guilt of" the Catholic apostacy." 

Q. Whilst the bishops thus urged the persecu- 
tion of the people, how was the court occupied 1 

A. In the wholesale plunder of estates. The 
judges were ranged on the side of the crown, and 
there were found complaisant jurors who were 
given an interest in finding verdicts against the 
proprietors. 

Q. What step did the Catholic nobility and 
gentry of Ireland take in 1628? 

A. They held a meeting in Dublin, at which 



88 CATECHISM OF THE 

many Protestants of rank and influence also 
attended. 

Q. What measure was agreed on at that meet- 

A. They framed a petition to the king, in 
which his majesty was requested to concede to 
his Irish subjects certain privileges termed the 
" graces." 

Q. What were these " graces " 1 

A. Security of property ; religious liberty ; 
free trade ; mitigation of the severities practised 
by the Established clergy; abolition of the private 
prisons kept by that clergy, for the incarceration 
of persons condemned in the church courts; a 
free pardon for all past political offences. 

Q. What offer did the Irish make the king, on 
the condition of his granting the " graces " ? 

A. They offered him the sum — an enormous 
one for those days — of one hundred thousand 
pounds. 

Q. Did Charles take the money ? 

A. Yes, he did. 

Q. But did he grant the " graces " 1 

A. He did not. 

Q. Whose, fault was that? 

A. It was partly the fault of his own weakness 
and bigotry. Some of his advisers exclaimed that 
the concession of the "graces" would exalt 
Popery on the ruins of Protestantism. The king 
took fright, and sheltered himself, for his shameful 
breach of promise, by allowing the blame to fall 
on Lord Strafford, who soon after became lord 
lieutenant of Ireland. 

Q. What was Strafford's part in the affair 1 

A. He strongly urged Charles to break faith 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 89 

with the Irish, and readily put himself forward to 
bear all the odium of the royal treachery. 

Q. Of what other crimes was Strafford guilty ? 

A. He prepared to rob the Connaught proprie- 
tors of their estates, by means of the " Commis- 
sion to Inquire into Defective Titles." 

Q. How did that commission work ? 

A. The proprietors were put upon their trial, 
to show title. The judges were bribed by four 
shillings in the pound, on the first year's rent of 
the estates, to be paid them in the event of a 
verdict being found for the king. The jurors were 
also bribed ; and the people were overawed, during 
the trials, by the presence of a strong military 
force. 

Q. Did these precautions always secure ver- 
dicts for the crown ? 

A. They usually did. There were, however, 
one or two instances in which the honesty of the 
jurors stood out against both terror and cor- 
ruption. 

Q. How were such conscientious jurors treated 
by the government ? 

A. They were fined ; pilloried ; their ears cut 
off; their tongues bored through; and their fore- 
heads marked with hot irons. 

Q. On what authority do you state these facts ? 

A. On that of the Journals of the Irish House 
of Commons, vol. i. p. 307. 

Q. Were not the proprietors afforded the alter- 
native of redeeming their estates on payment of a 
fine to the crown for new titles ? 

A. Yes; Strafford in this manner extorted 
,£17,000 from the O'Byrnes, and ,£70,000 from 
the London companies, to whom James the First 
had granted lands in Ulster. 



90 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. Did Strafford crush the woollen trade of 
Ireland ? 

A. Yes ; he injured it to the utmost of his 
power, from the fear that it would successfully 
rival the English woollen manufacture. 

Q. In the midst of all his crimes, do we find 
one solitary good conferred by Strafford upon 
Ireland t 

A. Yes ; he established and encouraged the 
manufacture of linen, which for a long time after 
flourished, and became a fruitful source of wealth 
to this country. 

Q. What circumstances induced Charles to 
withdraw Strafford from Ireland 1 

A. The troubles in Scotland, which violently 
raged, required all the aid and counsel of the 
ablest ministers at the English court. 



CHAPTER XVIII. 
The Civil War of 164:1. 

Q. What was the cause of the Irish civil war 
of 1641? 

A. The Irish were impelled to take up arms 
by the intolerable oppressions of which, for many 
years, they had been the victims ; and to defend 
themselves against the settled purpose of the gov- 
ernment to exterminate their race. 

Q. Into how many sections were the party who 
might be called " Irish" divided 1 

A. Into three. There were the ancient Irish 
clans; the Catholics of the English Pale ; and the 
royalists. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 91 

Q. What party was opposed to those three 1 

A. The Puritans, or parliamentarian party. 

Q. Where did the civil war begin 1 

A, In Ulster. 

Q. Who headed the outbreak in that province 1 

A. Sir Phelim O'Neill. 

Q. What was the object of the insurgents ? 

A. To recover the estates of that province for 
their ancient proprietors, and to secure freedom 
from English oppression for all the inhabitants of 
this kingdom. 

Q. Was Sir Phelim O'Neill qualified to lead so 
great an undertaking 1 

A. No ; he was a person of small abilities and 
ferocious temper. 

Q. What was the immediate outrage that drove 
the men of Ulster to revolt 1 

A. A massacre committed on the inhabitants 
of Island Magee by an armed party who issued 
from the English garrison of Carrickfergus. 

Q. Who were at that time the lords justices of 
Ireland? 

A. Sir William Parsons (the same person who 
had contrived the horrid crime committed on the 
Byrnes) and Sir John Borlase. 

Q. How did they act ? 

A. They published a proclamation, charging 
the great body of the Irish Catholics with being 
engaged in a conspiracy against the state. 

Q. Has it not often been asserted that there 
was a great massacre of the Protestants committed 
by the Irish Catholics in 1641 1 

A. Yes, that assertion has been made. 

Q. What is the character of that assertion 1 

A. It is a thorough and most impudent false- 
hood. 



92 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What! was there no general massacre 
committed by the Irish ? 

A. None whatever. 

Q. What is your reason for denying that there 
was a massacre ? 

A. The total absence of all proof that any 
massacre took place, and the irreconcilable state- 
ments of those who assert that a massacre did 
take place. 

Q. Was there, then, no blood shed by the 
Irish 1 

A. Yes, there was blood shed ; but it was in 
fair and open war; not by massacre. 

Q. How do you show the total absence of suf- 
ficient proof that a massacre took place ? 

A. Because no mention whatsoever is made of 
any massacre at all in the government documents 
of the period; in which, if it had really happened, 
it would have infallibly been recorded. 

Q. What documents do you speak of? 

A. The proclamations and despatches of the 
lords justices at Dublin Castle. 

Q. What is the date of the falsely alleged 
massacre ? 

A. The 23d of October, 1641. 

Q. What are the dates of the despatches of the 
lords justices 1 

A. The 25th of October ; the 25th of Novem- 
ber ; the 27th of November, and the 23d of De- 
cember, in the same year. Now, the despatches 
bearing these four dates accuse the Irish Cath- 
olics of various acts of turbulence and plunder ; 
they specify the murder of ten of the garrison of 
Lord Moore's house at Mellifont by a party of 
" rebels; " but they do not say one single word of 
any general massacre of the Protestants. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 93 

Q. What do you infer from this total silence on 
the subject 1 

A. That no massacre can have possibly oc- 
curred ; since it is perfectly incredible that, if 
there had been any massacre, it should not have 
been mentioned in the despatches drawn up by 
the bitter enemies of the Irish people, who were 
always eager for an opportunity of making 
charges against them. 

Q. What discrepancies strike you in the ac- 
counts of this pretended massacre? 

A. The irreconcilable details, given by differ- 
ent authors, of the numbers said to have been 
slain in cold blood. 

Q. How many does Milton say were mas- 
sacred ? 

A. Six hundred thousand.* 

Q. How many do Burton and Temple assert 
were massacred ? 

A. Three hundred thousand. 

Q. How many do Frankland, May, and Baker 
say? 

A. Two hundred thousand. 

Q. How many does Rapin say ? 

A. One hundred and fifty-four thousand. 



* Milton's words, as quoted by Harris in his " Historical 
Account of the Lives and Writings of James I. and Charles 
!./' (vol. II. p. 391,) London, 1814, are as follows : — 

" The rebellion and horrid massacre of English Protestants in 
Ireland, to the amount of 154,000, in the province of Ulster 
only, by their own computation ; which, added to the other 
three, makes up the total mm of that slaughter, in all likelihood, 
four times as great." 

In other words, about 616,000! — Milton probably became 
ashamed of this colossal falsehood ; for in subsequent editions 
of his u Iconoclastes," the part of the sentence printed in 
italics is omitted. Harris professes to quote from the 2nd 
•dition, p. 49. 



94 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. How many does Warwick say ? 

A. One hundred thousand. 

Q. How many does Lord Clarendon say ? 

A. Forty or fifty thousand. 

Q. How many does David Hume say 1 

A. Forty thousand. 

Q. How many does the Rev. Dr. Warner * 
say? 

A. Four thousand and twenty-eight. 

Q. What observation does Dr. Warner make 
on the wholesale charges flung at the Irish people 1 

A. He says "It is easy enough to demonstrate 
the utter falsehood of every Protestant historian 
of the rebellion." 

Q. What was the motive which induced the 
anti-Irish party to circulate those stupendous 
calumnies against the character of the country 1 

A. Because they had got possession of the 
estates of the native gentry; and it was in the 
highest degree their interest to deprive the old 
proprietors of all chance of sympathy or aid, by 
blackening, to the utmost, their character and that 
of their nation. 

Q. When Milton, Burton, and Temple, respect- 
ively, alleged the massacre of their " six hundred 
thousand" and their "three hundred thousand" 
Protestants by the Irish Catholics, pray what was 
the total number of Protestants in the kingdom ? 

A. According to Sir William Petty, the best 
statist of his day, the entire number of Irish Prot- 
estants then only amounted to about 220,000. 

Q. You have already stated that the Irish rose 
to defend themselves against the effort to exter- 



Fellow of Trinity College, Dublin. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 95 

minate them. What evidence have you that the 
government intended their extermination 1 

A. The evidence of several Protestant his- 
torians. 

Q. What does Dr. Leland say ? 

A. He says that " the favorite object of the 
Irish governors and the English parliament ' was 
the utter extermination of all the Catholic inhabit- 
ants of Ireland.' " * 

Q. What does Carte say ? 

A. That "the lords justices had set their 
hearts on the extirpation, not only of the ' mere 
Irish,' but likewise of all of the old English fami- 
lies that were Roman Catholics." f 

Q. What does Lord Clarendon say ? 

A. That the parliament party " had sworn to 
extirpate " the whole Irish nation, J 

Q. What does the Rev. Dr. Warner say ? 

A. That it is evident that the lords justices 
" hoped for an extirpation, not of the mere Irish 
only, but of all the old English families that were 
Roman Catholics." § 

Q. In the course of the civil war, did the gov- 
ernment try to restrain the bloodthirsty excesses 
of their followers? 

A. No ; on the contrary, they urged them to 
the work of massacre. 

Q. Can you state the words of their mandate 
for massacre? 

A. Yes ; in February, 1642, they issued an 
instruction to Lord Ormond, "that his lordship 

* Leland's History of Ireland ; Book V. chap. 4. 
t Carte's Life of the duke of Ormonde, vol. I. p. 330. 
j Clarendon., vol. I. p. 215. 

I Warner's History of the Rebellion and Civil War in Ire- 
land, p. 176. 



90 CATECHISM OF THE 

do endeavor with his majesty's forces to wound, 
kill, slay, and destroy, by all the ways and means 
he may, all the said rebels, their adherents and 
relievers ; and burn, waste, spoil, consume, de- 
stroy, and demolish, all the places, towns, and 
houses, where the said rebels are, or have been, 
relieved or harbored, and all the hay and corn 
there ; and kill and destroy all the men there in- 
habiting capable to bear arms." 

Q. Who were the lords justices who issued this 
diabolical instruction ? 

A. Their names were Dillon, Rotheram, Lof- 
tus, Willoughby, Temple, and Meredith. 

Q. Were their orders obeyed 1 

A. Yes ; to the very letter, by their sanguinary 
subordinates. 

Q. Where were the head-quarters of the con- 
federated Irish ? 

A. At Kilkenny. 

Q. Did the Irish leaders also draw up a mani- 
festo to regulate the conduct of their army ? 

A. They did. 

Q. What was the character of that manifesto ? 

A. Humane and merciful. The Irish leaders 
enjoined all their military commanders to prohibit, 
on pain of severe punishment, any wanton aggres- 
sion on the persons or goods of the public ; which 
injunction was further enforced by the penalty 
of excommunication, fulminated by the Catholic 
prelates against all such Catholics as should 
disobey it. 

Q. Who were the principal leaders of the con- 
federated Irish ? 

A. Roger Moore, Connor Macguire, O'Farrell, 
Clanricarde, Owen Roe O'Neill, Preston, Red 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 97 

Hugh O'Donnell, Audley, Mac Mahon, and Sir 
Phelim O'Neill. 

Q. Was their purpose to throw off their alle- 
giance to the king ? 

A. By no means. At a conference between 
the Irish leaders of English and Irish descent, 
held, prior to the taking up of arms, at the hill of 
Crofty, the lords of the Pale asked Roger Moore 
to state distinctly his purposes ; to which question 
Moore replied, " To maintain the royal preroga- 
tive, and make the subjects of Ireland as free as 
those of England." 

Q. How did Sir Phelim O'Neill endeavor to 
raise troops ? 

A. By alleging that he had taken up arms for 
the king ; and exhibiting a commission, purporting 
to be from his majesty, to which he had forged the 
royal seal and signature. 

Q. What was the personal character of Sir 
Phelim? 

A. It contrasted strongly with the dispositions 
of the other Irish leaders. He was a ferocious, 
headstrong man; but he in some measure re- 
deemed his crimes by the noble candor which he 
displayed when on the point of being executed. 

Q. What was that ? 

A. He might have saved his life, if he had then 
consented to confirm his own false statement, that 
Charles had authorized him to take up arms ; but 
he preferred doing justice to the unhappy king, 
by honestly confessing his own forgery of the 
commission. 

Q. What was the conduct of the earl of Or- 
mond during the civil war 1 

A. Crafty and treacherous. We find him at 
9 



98 CATECHISM OF THE 

first making offers to the lords justices to march 
against the insurgents. 

Q. Were his offers accepted 1 

A. Not at first. The lords justices sent forth 
Sir Charles Coote, a very monster of ferocity, to 
ravage the country and massacre the inhabitants. 

Q. Where do we next find Ormond ? 

A. Offering the Irish government to carry on 
the war against the confederates, on condition of 
being supplied with ten thousand pounds for that 
purpose. 

Q. Did the government accede to this offer ? 

A. They did not. 

Q. Did Ormond then enter into treaty with the 
confederates 1 

A. Yes ; he was authorized by Charles to do 
so. 

Q. What was the result of his negotiation 1 

A. A cessation of hostilities for twelve months. 
The confederates, who had taken up arms to de- 
fend their lives, properties, and liberties, looked 
upon this truce as a boon, and undertook to supply 
the king with thirty thousand pounds in considera- 
tion of.it. 

Q. What did Ormond achieve by this nego- 
tiation 1 

A. Firstly, he gained supplies for the king from 
the confederates ; secondly, he kept the confed- 
erates in a sort of hostile attitude; and thirdly, 
he tied them up for a whole year from making any 
use of their arms. 

Q. How did the Puritan, or parliamentarian 
party, act on the occasion of this truce ? 

A. They loudly exclaimed against the sin, as 
they called it, of holding any terms whatsoever 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 99 

with the murderous Papists, and they ordered their 
generals to break the truce. 

Q. What was the next act of the confed- 
erates ? 

A. They implored Ormond to take the com- 
mand of their army, and to lead them against 
Monroe, the parliamentarian general in Ulster. 

Q. Did Ormond comply ? 

A. No ; and the command was thereupon given 
to Lord Castlehaven. 

Q. What were the next steps of both parties ? 

A. The Catholic confederates, and the Ultra- 
Protestant party, each sent a deputation to England, 
to state their proposals to the king. 

Q. What did the Catholic party demand ? 

A. The total repeal of all penal laws against 
their religion ; the perfect freedom of the Irish 
parliament ; the exclusion from that parliament 
of all persons who had neither property nor resi- 
dence in Ireland ; an act, reversing all attainders 
of those who had borne arms in the war ; an act 
to incapacitate the viceroy from acquiring lands in 
Ireland during his tenure of office; a rigid in- 
quiry into all allegations of inhuman conduct and 
breaches of quarter upon either side during the 
troubles, and the due punishment of all convicted 
offenders. 

Q. What did the Protestant party demand ? 

A. That all the penal laws against the Cath- 
olics should be enforced with the utmost rigor ; 
that all Catholics should be disarmed ; that they 
should be obliged to make good all injuries sus- 
tained in the war by the Protestants; that all 
Catholics, guilty of offences, should be punished ; 
and that all the estates of which Sir William 
Parsons had achieved the forfeiture should be 



100 CATECHISM OF THE 

vested in the crown, with the view to secure the 
British settlers in the possession of them. 

Q. What curious inconsistency is observable 
in the Protestant proposal? 

A. That the Catholics should be compelled to 
make good all injuries sustained by the Protest- 
ants ; and at the same time be totally deprived of 
the means of so doing, by the confirmation of the 
forfeiture of their estates. 

Q. How did Charles treat the Catholic depu- 
tation? 

A. He gave them civil words, and then com- 
mitted the decision of their claims to Ormond. 

Q. What was Ormond's policy? 

A. Procrastination ; and he postponed all final 
settlement until the English Puritan party had 
acquired such power, as to render the king's ruin 
certain. 

Q. Why did Ormond delay the settlement ? 

A. Because he was secretly resolved not to 
grant the demands of the Catholics; and he tried 
to obtain their assistance for Charles, without 
committing himself by promise or treaty. 

Q. What was the king's conduct throughout 
the entire negotiation ? 

A. It was marked by duplicity and faithless- 
ness ; the effort to extort as much from the Irish, 
and to grant them as little as possible ; the accept- 
ance of money and men from our nation, on the 
faith of solemn promises which Charles neither 
kept, nor, in all probability, intended to keep. 

Q. Through whom were those promises con- 
veyed to the Irish confederates ? 

A. Through Herbert, earl of Glamorgan, the 
son of the marquis of Worcester. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 101 

Q. Did Ormond at last sign the treaty with the 
confederates ? 

A. He did; on the 28th of May, 1646. 

Q. What at last induced him to do so ? 

A. The pressing necessity of the king's affairs, 
which were every day becoming more desperate 
in consequence of the delay. 

Q. What was the first battle fought in Ireland 
after that treaty ? 

A. The battle of Benburb ; in which Owen 
Roe O'Neill, commanding the Catholic forces on 
the part of the king, defeated the more numerous 
army of the parliamentarians, commanded by 
Monroe. 

Q. Meanwhile, what were the king's fortunes 
in England ? 

A. Most disastrous. He met with a succession 
of defeats, and at last surrendered himself into the 
hands of the Scotch Puritans, who sold him to 
the English parliament for the sum of .£400,000. 

Q. What was then Ormond's policy? 

A. As soon as he saw the king's affairs were 
hopeless, he began to make terms with the par- 
liamentarians ; and he even pretended that Charles 
had instructed him to prefer the alliance of that 
party to the friendship of the Irish. 

Q. When Ormond deserted the confederates 
to negotiate with the parliamentarians, what con- 
ditions did he make for himself with the latter ? 

A. He bargained for £3000 a year for his 
wife ; £14,000 to make good his own personal 
losses in the war ; and liberty to reside in Eng- 
land on condition of not disturbing the new order 
of things. 

Q. Was this last stipulation carried into effect? 

A. No; on arriving in England he was ap- 
9* 



103 CATECHISM OF THE 

prised that the parliament had issued orders to 
arrest him ; and he accordingly escaped to France. 

Q. What were the fortunes of the confederate 
Catholics 1 

A. Unprosperous. They were divided by the 
opposite counsels of Rinuncini, the Pope's nuncio, 
and his party on the one hand, and the more mod- 
erate party on the other. 

Q. Did Ormond return to Ireland from 
France 1 

A. He did, in September, 1648. 

Q. Where was the king at that time ? 

A. A close prisoner at Carisbrook Castle in 
the Isle of Wight, in the hands of the parliamen- 
tarians. 

Q. How had Ormond employed his time whilst 
in France] 

A. In endeavoring to obtain from the French 
court supplies to carry on the war for the king in 
Ireland. 

Q. Did he succeed ? 

A. So badly, that the slender sum that court 
advanced him little more than defrayed the ex- 
penses of his voyage. On arriving at Cork, he 
had no more than thirty French louisd'or for his 
military chest. 

Q. Did he renew his treaty with the confed- 
erates ? 

A. Yes ; on the 16th of January, 1649, he 
ratified that treaty, granting every concession 
demanded by the Catholics. 

Q. Had he the king's authority for this ratifi- 
cation 1 

A. Yes; so long before as the 10th of October, 
in the previous year, Charles had written Ormond 
a letter from his prison, in which he says : " Be 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 103 

not startled at my great concessions concerning 
Ireland, for they icill come to nothing." 

Q. On what day was the king beheaded by 
the parliamentarians? 

A. On the 30th of January, 1649. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Commonwealth. 

Q. Where was Ormond when the news of the 
king's death reached him 1 

A. At Ifoughall, in the county Cork. 

Q. What was his first act on learning the 
event 1 

A. To proclaim the prince of Wales king, by 
the title of Charles the Second. 

Q. Where was the young king at that time 1 

A. At the Hague, in Holland. 

Q. Did he begin by confirming the peace 
which Ormond had signed with the confederate 
Catholics 1 

A. Yes ; he wrote from the Hague " that he 
had received, and was extremely well satisfied 
with, the articles of peace with the Irish confed- 
erates, and would confirm wholly and entirely all 
that was contained in them." * 

Q. Did he keep that promise to the Irish 1 

A. No; for in order to secure the crown of 
Scotland for himself, he found it was necessary to 
break faith with the Catholics, whom the Scottish 
Puritans detested. 

* Cart. Orig. Let. vol. II. pp. 363, 367. 



104 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What, then, was Charles's next declara- 
tion ? 

A. Having landed in Scotland in June, 1650, 
he publicly declared " that he did detest and 
abhor Popery, superstition, and idolatry, together 
with prelacy; resolving not to tolerate, much less 
to allow those in any part of his dominions, and to 
endeavor the extirpation thereof to the utmost of 
his power." 

Q. What did the king further say with regard 
to the peace with the IrTsh confederates, which 
he had so recently promised to observe invio- 
late ? 

A. " That it was null and void." " That 

he was convinced in his conscience of the sinful- 
ness and unlawfulness of it, and of his allowing 
them (the confederates) the liberty of the Popish 
religion ; for which he did from his heart desire 
to be deeply humbled before the Lord ; and for 
having sought unto such unlawful help for the 
restoring of him to his throne." 

Q. What effect had this base perfidy of Charles 
on the Irish people ? 

A. It necessarily withdrew many of them from 
their allegiance ; since it showed them how utterly 
unworthy of trust the king was ; and with what 
readiness he could sacrifice them to their bitterest 
enemies in order to attain his own ends. 

Q. Had the Catholic confederates been inva- 
riably faithful to the late unhappy king ? 

A. So faithful, that Ormond himself had told 
his majesty that several of the soldiers had starved 
by their arms, and that he could persuade one half 
of Iris army to starve outright. 

Q. Were the Protestants equally faithful to 
that unfortunate monarch ? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 105 

A. So far from it, that their leaders, Sir Charles 
Coote and Lord Broghill, with the entire force 
under their command, and the whole army in the 
north, had deserted from the late king to the 
Puritan rebels. 

Q. Did the young king's base ingratitude to 
the Irish Catholics, and his pledge to extirpate 
Popery, avail to secure him in his throne? 

A. No; the English parliamentarians refused 
to trust him, despite his professions ; and he was 
obliged to fly from England, to save his life. 

Q. Who was Oliver Cromwell 1 

A. One of the parliamentarian generals. 

Q. In what year did he come to Ireland ? 

A. In 1649 ; the year of the late king's murder. 

Q. How did Cromwell begin operations in 
Ireland ? 

A. He stormed Drogheda with a force of 
10,000 men and a well-appointed battering ar- 
tillery. 

Q. How did the garrison defend the town 7 

A. With great bravery. They twice repulsed 
their assailants ; but, on the third assault, Colonel 
Wall being killed, the garrison became dismayed, 
and offered to surrender the town on promise of 
quarter. 

Q. Did Cromwell, on taking possession of the 
town, observe this promise of quarter? 

A. No ; he massacred the inhabitants in cold 
blood. For three days the slaughter continued; 
and Cromwell, in his despatch to the English 
parliament, thanked God "for that great mercy," 
as he called it. 

Q. Did Cromwell also besiege Wexford ? 

A. He did, and he massacred three hundred 
women who had assembled at the cross. 



106 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. In which of the three kingdoms did the 
friends of the royal cause hold out the longest 
against Cromwell ? 

A. In Ireland. The Catholic Irish were the 
last to lay down their arms, and to relinquish 
their exertions in the king's behalf, as Lord Orrery 
testifies. 

Q. How did the Catholic bishops act ? 

A. They excommunicated all persons who 
should go over to the rebels. And Lord Clan- 
ricarde, acting on the advice of the Catholic 
assembly convened at Loughrea, issued a procla- 
mation denouncing the pains of high treason 
against all persons serving in Cromwell's army, 
or in treaty with him ; unless within twenty-one 
days they quitted that service, and abandoned all 
communication with the rebels. 

Q. What were the chief measures of Crom- 
well's Irish government? 

A. Severe laws against the Catholic religion 
and priesthood. The ancient possessions of the 
men who had fought for the king were given 
away to the hordes of Cromwellian adventurers ; 
and all the loyal Irish who survived the late war, 
and who could be collected, were driven into the 
province of Connaught, and forbidden to re-cross 
the Shannon under pain of death. 

Q. In what year did Cromwell die? 

A. In 1659. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 107 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Reign of Charles the Second. 

Q. In what year was Charles the Second re- 
stored to his throne 1 

A. In 1660. 

Q. How did he treat the Cromwellian party 
who had fought against his father and himself m 
Ireland 1 

A. He confirmed them in the possession of the 
estates they had seized from his loyal, suffering, 
Irish Catholic subjects; and two of the chief 
Cromwellian leaders — lord Broghill and Sir 
Charles Coote — he favored, by creating the 
former earl of Orrery, and the latter earl of 
Mountrath. 

Q. When did the new Irish parliament meet 1 

A, In 1661. 

Q. Of what materials was the house of com- 
mons composed ? » 

A. Chiefly of the adventurers who had acquired 
estates under Cromwell. 

Q. What was their character 1 

A. They were upstarts from the very lowest 
classes; they were extremely ignorant; inflated 
with spiritual pride ; outrageously impudent and 
self-sufficient. 

Q. What were the subjects that engaged the 
attention of this parliament 1 

A. The restoration of the Episcopal Protestant 
Church, and the settlement of the confiscated es- 
tates in possession of the Cromwellian proprietors. 

Q. Were there any Catholic members in that 
parliament ? 



108 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. Yes, a few ; there were one or two Catholic 
members for boroughs, and a small number of 
Catholic representatives of counties. 

Q. How did the Puritan majority treat these 1 

A. They tried to get rid of them ; first, by im- 
posing an oath of qualification which no Catholic 
could take. 

Q. Did that scheme succeed ? 

A. No; for the bill they prepared for imposing 
the oath was quashed by the English privy- 
council. 

Q. What did they next try 1 

A. They tried to expel the Catholic members 
by a vote of the house ; .but the lords justices con- 
demned that project as being an infraction on the 
royal prerogative. 

Q. How were the Puritanic members of this 
parliament induced to vote for the restoration of 
the Episcopal Church ? 

A. By the dexterous management of Ormond, 
who postponed the question of settling the estates 
until after the question ^f the church should have 
been disposed of. The Puritan members thus 
found it their interest to conciliate Ormond by 
voting for the establishment of the Episcopal 
Church. 

Q. Did the old proprietors make a struggle for 
their estates? 

A. Yes ; their claims were brought before the 
English privy-council, and they selected Richard 
Talbot, the earl of Tyrconnel, as the patron of 
their case. 

Q. What was the basis of their claims ? 

A. Right and justice. They also relied much 
on the merits of their own loyalty to Charles and 
his father, when contrasted with the rebellious 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 109 

conduct of the Cromwellian party, who had caused 
the late king's murder. 

Q. Did these claims and merits weigh with 
Charles? 

A. Not in the least. He looked upon the ruined 
Irish loyalists, who had lost their all in his service, 
as being too weak tp give him any annoyance in 
return for his desertion of their interests ; whereas, 
the Cromwellians were strong enough to render it 
worth the king's while to conciliate them. 

Q. Did any other motives actuate Charles ? 

A. Yes ; he wanted to preserve what was 
called "the English interest in Ireland;" and as 
he conceived that the new Cromwellian propri- 
etors, from their bitter hatred of the Irish people, 
were the fittest tools to effectuate that object, he 
readily gave them the assistance of his influence. 

Q. How did Ormond act ? 

A. He at first affected a desire to serve the 
Irish claimants ; but, as the Cromwellian parlia- 
ment had bribed him with a grant of =£30,000, the 
Catholics suspected his sincerity and refused 
his aid. 

Q. What was the final result? 

A. The confirmation of the immense majority 
of the Cromwellian soldiers and adventurers in the 
forfeited estates ; and the exclusion of nearly all 
the Irish claimants from any redress whatsoever. 

Q. Had Ormond profited by his share in the 
public events since the year 1641 ? 

A. Yes; his estates, prior to that period, had 
been worth about £7000 a year ; but after the Act 
of Settlement, his property amounted to the annual 
value of £80,000. 

Q. Have the Catholic gentry of the present day 
10 



110 CATECHISM OF THE 

an interest in subverting the Cromwellian settle- 
ment of property ? 

A. No ; for a large proportion of the confis- 
cated lands have passed, by purchase, into the 
hands of Catholic proprietors. 



CHAPTER XXI. 
The Reign of Charles II. continued. 

Q. What act affecting Ireland was next passed 
by the English Parliament ? 

A. An act to prevent the importation of Irish 
cattle into England. 

Q. Was this act observed 1 

A. Yes, until the great fire of London ; when 
the Irish, having nothing else to send the sufferers, 
sent them a present of cattle for their relief. 

Q. How did the English receive this gift? 

A. They represented it as an attempt to evade 
the cattle act. 

Q. Did Ormond try to serve any Irish interest ? 

A. Yes ; he promoted the linen and woollen 
manufacturers, and invited over the ablest foreign 
artizans to instruct the natives. 

Q. Meanwhile, how were the hot Protestant 
party in England occupied ? 

A. In devising and circulating rumors of Popish 
plots, conspiracies, and intended massacres. 

Q. What measures did they recommend Or- 
mond to take ? 

A. They advised him to expel the Catholic in- 
habitants from every walled town in Ireland, and 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. Ill 

to arrest every peer and gentleman of Irish 
lineage. 

Q. What was their object in giving this advice? 

A. To goad the Irish into a rebellion, in order 
to afford an opportunity for fresh confiscations. 

Q. Did Ormond act on their advice ? 

A. He did not; and thus Ireland was preserved 
in quiet, and the hopes of those persons who de- 
sired new forfeitures were disappointed. 

Q. Who was Oliver Plunket 1 

A. The Catholic archbishop of Armagh. 

Q. What was his character as a politician ? 

A. He had ever been thoroughly loyal to the 
Stuart dynasty. 

Q. What was his fate 1 

A. The English zealots dragged him to Lon- 
don, to answer for his alleged participation in a 
rebellious conspiracy. He offered to bring wit- 
nesses from Ireland to establish his innocence, but 
was refused the time necessary for that purpose. 
He was of course found guilty, and hanged, al- 
though not a tittle of credible evidence was pro- 
duced against him. 

Q. In what year did Charles die ? 

A. In 1684 ; not without the suspicion of being 
poisoned. 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The Reign of James the Second. 

Q. Did James the Second remove Ormond 
from the government of Ireland 1 

A. Yes; and replaced him by his kinsman, the 
earl of Clarendon. 



112 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. What was Clarendon's policy with regard 
to the Catholics ? 

A. He admitted them into the Privy Council, 
and advanced them to the bench. 

Q. What was James's policy with reference to 
the religious differences of his subjects ? 

A. He published a declaration, giving equal 
civil privileges to all classes of religionists. 

Q. What was the great principle of the Eng- 
lish revolution of 1688 ? 

A. Representative government, as opposed to 
the arbitrary power of despotic monarchy. 

Q. What step did James take when he heard 
that William of Orange had landed in England to 
contest the throne with him ? 

A. He fled to France. 

Q. Who was at that time lord lieutenant of 
Ireland ? 

A. The earl of Tyrconnel. 

Q. What was Tyrconnel's conduct? 

A. He pretended to the Protestants that he was 
desirous to negotiate with William ; whilst he 
augmented and strengthened by all the means in 
his power the Catholic army. 

Q. How did the enemies of the Irish Catholics 
act at this juncture ? 

A. They repeated the old trick, so frequently 
used, of accusing the Catholics of a purpose to 
massacre the Protestants; and anonymous letters, 
professing to give the most accurate details of the 
plot, were extensively circulated amongst the 
Protestant party by designing persons. 

Q. What terms did William of Orange offer to 
the Irish Catholics ? 

A. He offered them the possession of a third 
part of the churches in the kingdom ; equality of 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 113 

civil and religious privileges with all other religious 
persuasions ; and as full security of person and 
property as any other class of the subjects of the 
crown enjoyed. 

Q. Did the Irish Catholics accept these offers ? 

A. They did not. They believed themselves 
bound in conscience to preserve their loyalty to 
James, and they looked upon William as a 
usurper. 

Q. What were King James's movements ? 

A. He resolved to strike a blow for his crown 
in Ireland ; and accordingly sailed from France 
to Kinsale, where he landed on the 12th of 
March, 1689. 

Q. What reception did he meet 1 

A. A most loyal one from the corporations, 
gentry, and clergy. Even the clergy of the Prot- 
estant church vied with the Catholic priesthood in 
their ardent professions of allegiance. 

Q. When did the Irish parliament meet ? 

A. In May, 1689. The king opened the ses- 
sion in person. 

Q. Was that parliament a fair representation 
of the Irish people? 

A. Yes ; it included Catholics and Protestants. 
The former predominated in the House of Com- 
mons. There were Protestant bishops in the House 
of Lords, but no Catholic prelates. 

Q. What were the topics of the king's speech 1 

A. His majesty denounced all violations of the 
rights of conscience as abhorrent to his princi- 
ples ; he promised security of property ; he upheld 
the perfect equality of Protestants and Catholics ; 
he called the attention of parliament to the trading 
and manufacturing interests of the nation ; and 
recommended to their care those persons whom 
10* 



114 CATECHISM OF THE 

the Act of Settlement had unjustly deprived of 
their property. 

Q. What acts did this parliament pass 1 

A. An act for the full establishment of liberty 
of .conscience. This act had the warm assent of 
every Catholic member of this parliament, in 
which the great majority of members were Cath- 
olics. 

Q. Was it accordant with the spirit of the 
Irish Catholics at large 1 

A. Preeminently so. Neither then, nor at any 
other time, did the Irish Catholics desire the ex- 
clusion of any class of their countrymen from any 
political privilege which they themselves enjoyed. 

Q. What other measures did the parliament of 
1689 enact? 

A. It enacted that tithes should be paid by 
each person to the pastor of his own communion. 
The two houses, also, passed a bill repealing 
Poynings's law,* and establishing the legislative 
and judicial independence of Ireland; but it was 
negatived by the miserable James, to whom it ap- 
peared inconsistent with his favorite notion of 
"an English interest" in Ireland. 

Q. Was the Act of Settlement repealed this 
session ? 

A. Yes ; and the forfeited estates which the 
Cromwellian adventurers had obtained, were 
thereby restored to the former owners, who had 
lost them through their loyalty to the house of 
Stuart. 

Q. What grant did the Irish Parliament make 
James 1 

A. Twenty thousand pounds per month. 

* See page 61, ante. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 115 

Q. What financial scheme had James recourse 
to? 

A. He issued a proclamation, doubling the 
value of money. 

Q. How did the traders and merchants evade 
this proclamation? 

A. By instantly doubling the prices of their 
goods. 

Q. Did James besiege the city of Derry ? 

A. Yes ; the assault was commanded by Gen- 
eral Hamilton ; the defence was conducted by a 
dissenting clergyman named Walker ; and when 
we consider the want of previous discipline, the 
want of provisions in the garrison during a great 
portion of the siege, and the dispiriting tendency 
of the treacherous conduct of Lundy, the govern- 
or of the town, — it is impossible to estimate too 
highly the spirit, valor, and gallantry of the Prot- 
estant people of Derry. 

Q. What was the issue of the conflict ? 

A. The Derry men kept their town for Wil- 
liam ; and the assailants retreated on the arrival 
of vessels in the harbor bearing provisions for 
the gallant inhabitants — whose defence forms one 
of the most brilliant achievements in the annals 
of modern warfare. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

Struggle between James and William. 

Q. What measures did William of Orange take 
against James, in Ireland ? 



116 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. He sent his Dutch general, Count Schom- 
berg, with an army of ten thousand men, into this 
country. 

Q. When and where did they land ? 

A. They landed on the 13th of August, 1689, 
at Bangor Bay, near Carrickfergus. 

Q. What was the character of the Williamite 
army? 

A. The Rev. Dr. Gorge, who was chaplain to 
Schomberg, describes them as wallowing in profli- 
gacy too odious and loathsome for description. 
They were, however, brave and well-trained 
soldiers. 

Q. What was Schomberg's first attempt ? 

A. The siege of Carrickfergus. 

Q. Who was the Jacobite governor of the 
town? 

A. McCarthy More. 

Q. Did he make a gallant defence 1 

A. He did not surrender until his last grain of 
powder was exhausted; and he then obtained 
honorable terms from Schomberg. 

Q. Did Schomberg's army observe the terms 
of capitulation 1 

A. No; they scandalously violated their engage- 
ments, and rioted in every excess of flagitious 
license. Female virtue was outraged, and private 
property was plundered and devastated. 

Q. Did the native Irish, in the various civil 
wars of the kingdom, ever offer injury or insult to 
the females of the opposite party 1 

A. Never; and this fact is a proud and honor- 
able boast for our nation; especially when con- 
trasted with the beastly licentiousness that marked 
the conduct of the English soldiery in Ireland in 
every civil strife. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 117 

Q. Did Schomberg countenance the ruffianism 
of his men at Carrickfergus ? 

A. No ; he endeavored to check them ; and 
thereby obtained their hatred. 

Q. Whither did he advance from Carrick- 
fergus ? 

A. Along the coast of Dundalk. 

Q. In what condition did he find the country ? 

A. Reduced to a mere desert by the previous 
civil warfare. • 

Q. What was the state of Schomberg' s men? 

A. They suffered severely from the want of 
provisions, and the fatigue of marching through a 
boggy and mountainous country. 

Q. What were the counsels of James's gener- 
als ? 

A. They were disposed to retreat before 
Schomberg, until the earl of Tyrconnel reassured 
them by promising a large reenforcement. 

Q. What was Schomberg's conduct ? 

A. He paused near Dundalk, and fortified his 
camp with entrenchments. 

Q. Did James's army engage that of Schom- 
berg ? 

A. No ; the timid and vacillating spirit of 
the king appears to have influenced his generals. 
The men were dissatisfied at not being led against 
the enemy. 

Q. What were Marshal Rosen's words to 
James ? 

A, " If your majesty had ten kingdoms, you 
would lose them." 

Q. Why did not Schomberg engage James's 
army? 

A. Because his men were exhausted by disease 



118 CATECHISM OF THE 

and hunger, and must have inevitably been de- 
feated if they quitted their position. 

Q. What losses did the Williamites sustain 
just then? 

A. They lost Sligo and Jamestown, which 
were stormed and taken by the gallant Sarsfield, 
earl of Lucan ; a man of whom Irishmen may 
well be proud. 

Q. How did Schomberg's campaign terminate? 

A. In the destruction, by disease and famine, 
of the greater portion of his army ; while no 
advantage of any importance had been gained by 
his efforts against James, excepting the capture 
of the fort of Charlemont. 

Q. On what course did William then resolve ? 

A. On proceeding to Ireland himself. 

Q. Where and when did he land ? 

A. At Carrickfergus on the 14th of June, 
1690. 

Q. By whom was he attended? 

A. By Prince George of Denmark, the duke 
of Ormond, and a large train of followers of rank. 

Q. What was the number of William's army? 

A. Thirty-six thousand picked men. 

Q. What were James's movements? 

A. As soon as he learned that William had 
landed, he proceeded to join his army, which 
were now encamped on the southern bank of the 
Boyne, near Drogheda. 

Q. When did William's army arrive at the 
Boyne ? 

A. At an early hour in the morning of the 
30th of June. 

Q. How were James's army then posted? 

A. They had Drogheda to their right ; a deep 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 119 

bog to their left ; the Boyne in their front, and 
some hedges between their lines and the river, 
which could be used as breast-works for infantry. 

Q. What peril did William escape? 

A. While reconnoitring James's position from 
the opposite bank of the river, he was struck on 
the right shoulder by a ball from James's lines ; 
whilst another shot killed a man and two horses 
in his immediate vicinity. He, however, escaped 
with a slight wound, and rode through his army 
to counteract the dispiriting effects of a report of 
his death that had been spread. 

Q. How was James affected by the approach 
of battle ? 

A. He had blustered a great deal upon the 
previous day about his anxiety to risk an engage- 
ment ; but he now was eagerly anxious to avoid 
encountering his opponent. 

Q. Was this from sheer poltroonery 1 

A. Partly it was so, no doubt; but William's 
army was so vastly superior to his own in artillery, 
as well as in numbers, that the French generals 
of James would have willingly escaped an engage- 
ment. The Irish, however, expresed their perfect 
readiness to fight. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The Battle of the Boyne, and the Sieges of Ath- 
lone and Limerick. 

Q. On what day was the Battle of the Boyne 
fought ? 

A. Or^the first of July, 1690. 



120 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. Did James take an active part in the 
battle ? 

A. No ; he looked on at the contest from the 
hill of Donore ; and when a portion of William's 
army gave way before the charge of the Irish 
dragoons, he exclaimed, " Spare, O spare my 
English subjects!" 

Q. What was the progress and event of the 
battle 1 

A. Great valor was displayed on both sides ; 
but the great superiority, in point of numbers and 
equipments, on the part of William's army, de- 
cided the victory in their favor. Exclusively of 
the numerical advantage, the Williamites were en- 
couraged by the presence of a monarch who led 
them with bravery and skill ; whilst the Jacobites 
were dispirited by the cowardice and incapacity 
of the miserable James. 

Q. What did the Irish soldiers say when James 
fled to Dublin 1 

A. Their cry was, " Change kings, and we'll 
fight the battle over again." 

Q. What was the conduct of William's soldiers 
after the battle ? 

A. The Enniskilleners, and some other des- 
peradoes, murdered in cold blood many of the 
peasantry whom curiosity had drawn to the spot. 

Q. Who received James at Dublin Castle ? 

A. Lady Tyrconnel received him on the stair- 
case ; and when his majesty, with base ingratitude 
and falsehood, ascribed the event of the battle to 
the cowardice of the Irish, " who," he said, " had 
run away," Lady Tyrconnel replied with spirit : 
" Your majesty, I see, has won the race ! " In 
truth, James had not waited for the end of the en- 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 121 

gagement, but had precipitately fled to Dublin, 
leaving the day yet undecided. 

Q. What commission did William issue ? 

A. A commission to confiscate the estates of 
all the Jacobite leaders who had taken up arms. 

Q. What was William's next military enter- 
prise 1 

A. The seige of Athlone. This service was 
intrusted to General Douglas, who was placed at 
the head of ten regiments of foot, and five of 
horse. 

Q. Who was the Jacobite governor of Ath- 
lone 1 

A. Colonel Grace. 

Q. When summoned by Douglas to surrender, 
what was Grace's answer ? 

A. He fired a pistol at the messenger, desiring 
him to take that as his reply. 

Q. What was Douglas's next proceeding ? 

A. He constructed a battery in front of the 
town, and opened a fire on the castle. 

Q. How did the garrison meet the attack ? 

A. By returning Douglas's fire from the castle 
with tremendous effect. His best gunner was 
killed, and his battery was destroyed. He was 
accordingly obliged to raise the siege. 

Q. When did William besiege Limerick 1 

A. On the 9th of August, 1690. 

Q. What was the conduct of his army prior to 
the siege ? 

A. They renewed the brutalities they had prac- 
tised at Athlone. They plundered and burned 
the country, and committed acts of the grossest 
licentiousness. 

Q. What defence did the Irish garrison of 
Limerick make ? 

11 



122 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. A most gallant one. Even the women min- 
gled amongst the soldiers, and fought as valiantly 
as the men. They declared that they would 
rather be torn in pieces than submit to the power 
of wretches who were guilty of such foul abomina- 
tions as the Williamite army had committed. 

Q. How long did the conflict last? 

A. For three hours ; when William retreated 
from Limerick, seeing that success was perfectly 
hopeless. 

Q. How many men did William lose 1 

A. Two thousand. 

Q. How did the advances of his army affect 
the condition of the Protestants who inhabited the 
country 1 

A. Most disastrously ; for the Protestants in 
the neighborhood of Limerick, and also of Ath- 
lone, had previously lived in security under the 
protections they had taken out from the Jacobite 
garrisons of those places ; but on the approach of 
William's army, they had surrendered their pro- 
tections and gone over to the invading army ; by 
whom they were treated with the utmost indignity, 
and even brutality. 

Q. What walled city was next attacked ? 

A. Cork, which was taken after a brave de- 
fence ; the inhabitants having stipulated for pro- 
tection for their persons and property. 

Q. Were these terms observed ? 

A. No ; a Williamite mob abused the persons 
and plundered the property of the Catholic and 
Jacobite inhabitants ; in which acts of license they 
were joined by the triumphant soldiery. 

Q. What was the amount of the confiscations 
under William ? 

A. One million and sixty thousand acres. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 123 

Q. What town of importance did William be- 
siege the ensuing year 1 

A. Athlone. 

Q. Who conducted the assault ? 

A. General Ginckle. 

Q. When did he appear before the town ? 

A. On the 18th of June, 1691. 

Q. What resistance did the garrison make ? 

A. A most valiant one. The assailing force 
was now far superior to that which General Doug- 
las had brought against the town on the occasion 
of the previous siege. 

Q. How many cannon did Ginckle mount on 
his battery ? 

A. Ten ; with which he opened a tremendous 
fire on the town and castle. The bridge had been 
broken by Grace in the former siege, and the 
English now repaired the breach with wood-work, 
under cover of the smoke of burning buildings. 

Q. How did the Irish meet this attempt ? 

A. A sergeant and ten men, cased in armor, 
rushed forth from the town to destroy the wooden 
passage the English had made. 

Q. What was the fate of this brave little party ? 

A. They were destroyed by a shot from the 
English battery. 

Q. Was their attempt renewed by others ? 

A. Yes ; a second party from the town filled 
their places, and succeeded in destroying the 
wood-work on the bridge. Only two of this party 
survived their desperate exploit. 

Q. What was the result on the invading force? 

A. Ginckle was unable for nine days to repeat 
his assault. 

Q. When he did renew his attack, how did the 
Irish act? 



124 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. They threw grenades into all the wooden 
works on which he had been occupied during the 
interval ; and all his pontoons, galleries, and 
breast-works, were consumed to ashes. 

Q. What was the conduct of King James's 
French general, St. Ruth ? 

A. He most absurdly removed the brave men 
who so ably garrisoned Athlone, and supplied 
their places with inferior regiments. 

Q. Meanwhile, how was Ginckle occupied 1 

A. He seriously debated with his officers 
whether he should abandon the siege, or renew 
the assault. His own opinion was in favor of 
retreating ; his officers, however, prevailed on him 
to renew his attempt by fording the river next 
morning. 

Q. How did Ginckle try to throw the garrison 
off their guard ? 

A. He began to remove his guns from the bat- 
teries, as if he were preparing to depart. 

Q. Did this trick deceive the Irish officers ? 

A. No ; and they implored St. Ruth to prepare 
for another assault on the town. 

Q. What was St. Ruth's reply 1 

A. " The English," said he, " will not dare to 
try it." ^ 

Q. What did the Irish General, Sarsfield, 
answer 1 

A. " No enterprise," said Sarsfield, " is too 
great for English valor." 

Q. Did St. Ruth comply with the advice of his 
Irish officers 1 

A. No; he was obstinate and self-sufficient, 
and refused to believe that Ginckle would really 
hazard another attack. He accordingly neglected 
to make any preparations of defence ; and on the 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 125 

next morning the English had forded the river and 
entered the town ere St. Ruth had wakened from 
his slumbers. 

Q. Where did St. Ruth retreat to, with his 
army, after he had lost Athlone ? 

A. To the hill of Kilcommodon, near the castle 
of Aughrim, in the county of Galway. 

Q. On what day was the battle of Aughrim 
fought ? 

A. On the 12th of July, 1691. 

Q. What were the fortunes of the day 1 

A. Victory seemed for a long time to favor 
the Irish, who succeeded in several charges, and 
were quite triumphant on the right and in the 
centre ; when St. Ruth was killed by a shot from 
the enemy's cannon. Confusion overspread the 
Irish army on the loss of their commander, and 
was speedily followed by defeat. 

Q. What was the character of St. Ruth ? 

A. He was undoubtedly a brave and able gen- 
eral ; but his merits were counterbalanced by his 
excessive presumption, self-confidence, vanity and 
obstinacy. 

Q. Did William renew his attempt against 
Limerick? 

A. Yes ; on the 25th August, 1691. 

Q. To whom did he commit the conduct of 
the second siege 1 

A. To Ginckle 

Q. Was the siege protracted ? 

A. Yes, for several weeks ; and after an ob- 
stinate struggle, in which the greatest heroism 
was displayed on both sides, the city surrendered 
upon the terms imbodied in the celebrated 
" Treaty of Limerick." 
11* 



126 CATECHISM OF THE 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Treaty of Limerick. 

Q. What were the advantages promised to the 
Irish Catholics in the treaty of Limerick ? 

A. All the Catholics were to enjoy the exercise 
of their religion in as full and free a manner as 
they had done in the reign of Charles the Second. 
It was stipulated also that, as soon as parliament 
met, their majesties should try to obtain for the 
Catholics additional legislative security for the 
freedom of their worship. 

Q. What was the next provision in the treaty ? 

A. That all the inhabitants of the counties of 
Limerick, Cork, Clare, Kerry, and Mayo, who 
had taken up arms for King James, should possess 
their estates and pursue their callings and profes- 
sions unmolested. 

Q. What other right was secured to the Cath- 
olic gentry ? 

A. They were allowed to keep arms. 

Q. And what oaths were required to be taken 
by them 1 

A. None, except the oath of allegiance to Wil- 
liam and Mary. 

Q. What provision was made by the treaty for 
all officers and soldiers who might refuse to remain 
in Ireland on the above conditions ? 

A. They were to be sent to France at the ex- 
pense of the government. 

Q. What was then the number of the Irish 
army at Limerick? 

A. They were fifteen thousand strong. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 127 

Q. How many of them resolved to depart from 
Ireland and enter the service of Franoe 1 

A. About twelve thousand five hundred. They 
formed the commencement of the celebrated Irish 
Brigade, which, during the last century, contrib- 
uted so greatly to the honor of French arms. 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

TIte Reign of William and Mary, concluded. 

Q. Was the treaty of Limerick faithfully ob- 
served by the government 1 

A. No; it was shamefully violated. 

Q. What did Dr. Dopping, the Protestant 
bishop of Meath, say of it ? 

A. He preached a sermon before the lords 
justices at Christ's Church, Dublin, in which he 
affirmed that Protestants were not bound to keep 
faith with Papists ; at the same time denouncing 
the articles of the treaty. 

Q. Was the bishop replied to ? 

A. He was, by another Protestant prelate, 
Doctor Moreton, bishop of Kildare ; who alleged 
that the treaty was binding on men of good faith, 
and that Protestants could not be exonerated from 
keeping their promises to Papists. 

Q. Did the English parliament violate the 
treaty? 

A. Yes. By an audacious usurpation of power 
over the Irish legislature, the English parliament 
enacted, " that all the members of the Irish 
legislature should take the oath of supremacy ;" 
although the treaty of Limerick had expressly 



128 CATECHISM OF THE 

provided, in its ninth article, that no oath what- 
soever should be imposed upon the Irish Catholics 
except the oath of allegiance. In subsequent 
reigns, the treaty was yet more flagrantly vio- 
lated. 

Q. Did the Irish parliament, at this period of 
national depression and weakness, protect in any 
way the interests of their country 1 

A. Yes ; the Irish house of commons rejected 
a money-bill which had been forwarded from 
England for their fiat ; asserting their own exclu- 
sive right to originate all money-bills. 

Q. Of what materials was the Irish house of 
commons at this time composed 1 

A. Chiefly of the sons of Cromwellian adven- 
turers, and other supporters of what was called 
"the Protestant interest." There were a very 
small number of Catholics yet in the house. 

Q. How did that parliament violate the treaty 
of Limerick ? 

A. By an act disabling the Catholics from 
educating their children, or being guardians of 
their own or other people's children ; also by an 
act disarming the Catholics; and by another act 
to expel all Catholic prelates and priests from the 
kingdom. They also passed laws to prevent the 
intermarriages of Protestants with Catholics ; and 
to prevent Catholics from being attorneys or game- 
keepers. 

Q. What address did the English parliament 
present to William in 1698 on the subject of 
Ireland ? 

A. An address praying him to discourage the 
woollen manufacture of Ireland. 

Q. What was William's answer ? 

A. " I shall do all that in me lies to discourage 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 129 

the woollen manufacture of Ireland, and to en- 
courage the linen manufacture therein." 

Q. Did William keep his promise to discourage 
our woollen trade 1 

A. He did. 

Q. Did he keep his promise to encourage our 
linen trade 1 

A. He did not. 

Q. In what year did William die? 

A. In 1701. He was succeeded by his cousin 
and sister-in-law, Anne Stuart. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

The Reign of Queen Anne. 

Q. What enactments were passed against the 
Catholics in the reign of Anne 1 

A. The code generally known as the penal 
laws. 

Q. What were the penalties inflicted by that 
code ? 

A. The Catholics were thereby rendered in- 
capable of acquiring landed property in fee, or 
by lease for any term longer than thirty-one years ; 
and even for that limited term they were not 
permitted to possess an interest in their land 
greater than one third the amount of the rent, on 
pain of forfeiting the entire to the first Protestant 
who should discover the extent of such interest. 

Q. State some other enactments of the code. 

A. If the child of a Papist possessing an estate 
should conform to Protestantism, the parent was 
debarred from disposing of his property by sale, 



130 CATECHISM OF THE 

mortgage, or will ; and the court of chancery was 
empowered to order an annuity out of the estate, 
for the use of such conforming child. 

Q. What other penal laws were passed? 

A. Catholics were declared incapable of in- 
heriting the estates of their Protestant relations. 
The estate of a Catholic who had not a Protestant 
heir was to be divided in gavel among all his 
children. All men were to be qualified for office, 
or as voters at elections, by taking the oath of 
abjuration, and by receiving the sacrament of the 
Lords Supper as administered in the Established 
Protestant Church ! ! ! A Catholic possessing a 
horse — no matter of what value — was compelled 
to surrender the horse to any Protestant on pay- 
ment of five pounds. 

Q. Was there a more specific violation of the 
treaty of Limerick than the scandalous enact- 
ments you have mentioned ? 

A. Yes ; the parliament enacted a law which 
expressly, and by name, deprived the Catholics of 
Galway and Limerick of the protection guaranteed 
to them by that treaty. 

Q. Was a bribe held out to Catholic priests 
to become Protestants ? 

A. Yes; a grant of forty pounds per annum 
was made to every " Popish " priest who should 
embrace the established religion. 

Q. What was the object of the Irish Protestant 
parliament in their shameless infraction of the 
treaty of Limerick, and their violent and ferocious 
enactments against their Catholic fellow-country- 
men? 

A. They were haunted by incessant fears that 
the Catholics would try to recover the estates 
which had been wrested from them by every 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 131 

variety of flagitious crime; and they therefore 
labored to depress and weaken the objects of their 
terror to the utmost. 

Q. Were there any instances of Protestant 
good faith in that dark and dreary period ? 

A. Yes ; many instances in private life. Es- 
tated Catholics who dreaded " Protestant discov- 
erers " often made over their properties in trust to 
friendly Protestants, even in the humblest ranks, 
in order to evade the operation of the demon-law ; 
and in no one case did the Protestants who were 
thus confided in abuse the trust which the Catholic 
proprietors reposed in them. It is said that one 
poor Protestant barber had half the Catholic 
estates of a southern county in trust. 

Q. Was there, in this reign, a rumor of an 
attempt by the son of James the Second to recover 
the crown of these kingdoms ? 

A. Yes; in 1708. 

Q. What effect had that rumor on the affairs 
of the Irish Catholics ? 

A. It served as a pretext to the Protestant 
authorities to arrest forty-one of the principal 
Catholic nobility and gentry. 

Q. How did the Irish Catholics at that time 
feel disposed towards James the Second's fam- 
ily ? 

A. They regarded them with aversion and 
disgust; for they had a bitter experience of 
their tyrannical disposition, treachery, falsehood, 
and base ingratitude to those who had fought 
and bled in their cause, and lost their all in their 
service. 

Q. Did the Irish parliament, in the reign of 
Anne, show a single spark of national feeling? 



132 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. Yes ; in 1709 a money-bill was thrown out, 
because the English privy-council had presumed 
to alter it. 

Q. What do we learn from this fact 1 

A. That since the pressure of their own in- 
terests could sometimes impel even a parliament 
so anti-national as was that assembly, to the per- 
formance of a patriotic act, — the residence of an 
Irish legislature, harmonizing with the Irish peo- 
ple, and truly representing their wishes and in- 
terests, would be the best possible safeguard and 
promoter of the nation's prosperity. 

Q. When did Queen Anne die ? 

A. In August, 1714. 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

The Reign of George the First. 

Q. Whilst the Irish parliament was employed 
in the enactment of restrictive laws against the 
Catholics, what advantage was taken by the Eng- 
lish legislature of the national weakness thus 
created ? 

A. In the sixth year of George the First, the 
English parliament enacted a law, declaring itself 
possessed of full power and authority to make 
laws and statutes of sufficient force and validity 
to bind the people of the kingdom of Irelanu. 
The English parliament also deprived the Iris/i 
house of lords of its final jurisdiction in cases 
of appeal. 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 133 

Q. Was not this a gross usurpation of power 1 

A. Of course it was; but Ireland, from the 
divisions between her inhabitants, was just then 
too weak to resist it. 

Q. Was the Irish parliament, during this 
reign, engaged in imposing new penalties on the 
Catholics ? 

A. Yes; such was the infatuation of its 
bigotry, a bill was actually passed by both 
houses, which decreed a personal penalty on 
every Catholic ecclesiastic, of so revoltingly 
indecent a nature that it cannot be explicitly 
mentioned. 

Q. Did that bill pass into a law? 

A. No; Sir Robert Walpole, the English 
prime minister, exerted his influence, for very 
shame's sake, to procure its defeat in the English 
privy council. 

Q. Who was Dean Swift? 

A. An Irish Protestant divine of distinguished 
abilities. He combined both Protestants and 
Catholics in powerful opposition to a govern- 
ment scheme for empowering a man named 
Wood to coin copper money in Ireland. His 
" Drapier's Letters " which were written on this 
subject, obtained deserved celebrity at the time ; 
and the spirit of resistance which he aroused 
succeeded in defeating the object of the gov- 
ernment. 

Q. When did George the First die 1 

A. In 1727. 

12 



134 CATECHISM OF THE 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

The Reign of George the Second. 

Q. What steps did the Catholics take on the 
accession of George the Second 1 

A. The nobility and gentry determined to pre- 
sent a loyal address to him. 

Q. Was their address presented ? 

A. No; it was suppressed by the influence 
of Boulter, the Protestant primate, because he 
deemed it inconsistent with law that there should 
be any recognition of the existence of the Irish 
Catholics as a body in the state. 

Q. Did the Irish house of commons protect 
the nation's purse in this reign 1 

A. Yes ; in 1731 the government tried to get 
a grant of the supplies for twenty-one years; 
but the iniquitous effort was foiled by the com- 
mons. 

Q. What was the Agistment Act ? 

A. An act passed in 1735, by which all pas- 
ture lands were exempted from tithe, or mo- 
dus for tithe ; and the Protestant clergy were 
only permitted to claim the tithe of tillage and 
meadow. 

Q. Who was lord lieutenant of Ireland in 
1745? 

A. The celebrated earl of Chesterfield. 

Q. Was he a judicious viceroy ? 

A. Yes; he discouraged informers against 
" Papists;" and conciliated the people of Ireland 
by mitigating the severities of the existing laws, 
so far as a mild administration could mitigate 
them. 






HISTORY OF IRELAND. 135 

Q. Were there not, however, two new penal 
laws passed during his viceroyalty? 

A. Yes; one of these laws dissolved all mar- 
riages between Protestants and Papists ; the other 
inflicted the penalty of death on every Catholic 
priest who should marry two Protestants, or a 
Protestant and Papist. 

Q. In what year did Chesterfield leave Ire- 
land ? 

A. In 1747. 

Q. Who then acquired a leading power in the 
Irish government ? 

A. The Protestant primate, Dr. Stone ; who, 
like his predecessor, Boulter, was an English- 
man. 

Q. What was Stone's policy ? 

A. He converted his house into a brothel, to 
win the support of the younger members of 
parliament to his measures, by pandering to their 
vices. 

Q. What event occurred in 1759 1 

A. Carrickfergus was seized by a small 
French force under the command of Thurot ; 
who, however, soon retired when he found that 
he was not sustained by the Catholic inhabit- 
ants. 

Q. What important legislative measure was 
contemplated in that year 1 

A. Ministers projected a legislative Union be- 
tween Ireland and England. 

Q. Did the scheme succeed ? 

A. No ; it was abandoned for the time. The 
people of Dublin were indignant at the design. 
They rushed into the house of lords, and com- 
pelled such members of both houses as they 
met, to take an oath that they never would 



136 CATECHISM OF THE 

consent to the destruction of the Irish parlia- 
ment. 

Q. In what year did George the Second die ? 

A. In 1760. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Reign of George the Third. 

Q. What change occurred in the constitution 
of the Irish parliament in the earlier part of the 
reign of George the Third 1 

A. The members of the house of commons 
had previously sat for life; but in 1768, they 
shortened the duration of each parliament to eight 
years. 

Q. Who was at that time lord lieutenant ? 

A. Lord Townshend. 

Q. What dispute arose between the court and 
the house of commons ? 

A. A money-bill had been prepared in Eng- 
land, and was submitted to the house of com- 
mons by the Irish minister; but the commons 
threw out the bill, because it had not originated 
with themselves. 

Q. Did Lord Townshend protest against the 
rejection of the bill by the commons 1 

A. He did ; but the house refused to enter his 
protest on their journals. 

Q. In what year did the American colonies 
revolt from England 1 

A. In 1776. 

Q. What effect had the assertion of American 
independence on the Irish people ? 

A. It stimulated them, by example, to assert 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 137 

the freedom of their trade and the independence 
of their parliament. 

Q. Did it furnish them with any facilities for 
this purpose? 

A. Yes ; by embarrassing England, which was 
then engaged in a war against the American states, 
and could not spare troops to overawe the Irish : 
for the period of England's difficulty and dis- 
tress has ever been the period the most favorable 
to Irish freedom. England's extremity has al- 
ways been Ireland's opportunity. 

Q. Who were the Irish volunteers ? 

A. They were an army of citizen-soldiers who 
rose up to defend their country, which, in 1778, 
was threatened with a French invasion. 

Q. Where did the enrolment of this citizen- 
army originate ? 

A. In Belfast. The people of that town had 
requested the government to send them a garrison. 

Q. What was the answer of the government 1 

A. That they could not spare them more than 
half a troop of dismounted cavalry, and half a 
company of invalids. 

Q. When the Belfast volunteers formed them- 
selves into a corps for the national defence, was 
their example speedily followed by the other towns 
throughout the kingdom 1 

A. Yes ; so speedily, that, within a few months, 
the volunteer army of Ireland amounted to 42,000 
strong. 

Q. What were the proceedings of the Irish 
parliament 1 

A. When the houses of parliament found them- 
selves sustained by so powerful an army, they 
unanimously voted an address to the viceroy, de- 
claring that the nation could onJy be preserved 
12* 



138 CATECHISM OF THE 






from ruin by a free trade. They also voted resolu- 
tions of thanks to the different volunteer com- 
panies for their spirited patriotism. 

Q. In what year was free trade carried by the 
Irish legislature ? 

A. In 1779. 

Q. What was the celebrated resolution of the 
Dublin volunteers, presided over by the duke of 
Leinster, in 1780? 

A. " Resolved, that the king, lords, and com- 
mons, of Ireland, only, were competent to make 
laws binding the subjects of this realm ; and that 
they would not obey, nor give operation to any 
laws save only those enacted by the king, lords, and 
commons, of Ireland — whose rights and privileges, 
jointly and severally, they were determined to sup- 
port with their lives and fortunes." 

Q. Who were the principal leaders of the 
movement in favor of free trade, and a free parlia- 
ment, for Ireland ? 

A. Henry Grattan, the duke of Leinster, the 
earl of Charlemont, Henry Flood, and several 
others. Grattan moved, and carried through the 
house of commons, in 1782, a Declaration of 
Rights, exactly identical in matter, and nearly so 
in words, with the resolution of the Dublin volun- 
teers already quoted. 

Q. Where did the volunteer convention meet T 

A. At Dungannon, in February, 1782 ; and 
the bold and determined tone adopted by that 
body encouraged the patriots in parliament, and 
overawed the court party into acquiescence. 

Q. How did the parliament testify its gratitude 
to Grattan, for his triumphant exertions to obtain* 
legislative independence for Ireland ? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 139 

A. The house of commons voted him a grant 
of fifty thousand pounds. 

Q. What was the next money-vote of the Irish 
commons 1 

A. They voted one hundred thousand pounds 
to raise seamen for the service of England ; thus 
giving a proof of the readiness of Ireland to assist 
the sister country, when exempt from the operation 
of British injustice. 

Q. Of what religion were the leaders of the 
glorious movement of 1779-S2 ? 

A. They were Protestants. Some of them were 
descendants of the Cromwellian settlers; and their 
conduct demonstrates that the Protestant heart 
can warm to the cause of Irish freedom and pros- 
perity, when uninfluenced by the visionary fears 
conjured up by designing bigots. 

Q. What was the result of the commercial and 
constitutional victory obtained by the patriots 1 

A. Increase of trade, manufacture, and general 
prosperity, to an extent unparalleled in the an- 
nals of any other nation within so short a period. 

Q. Did the Catholics obtain any relaxation of 
their grievances 1 

A. Yes; in 1782, the penal laws regarding 
property were all repealed, and the Catholics were 
placed on a level with Protestants as far as re- 
garded the acquisition of land in freehold or in 
absolute fee. 

Q. What great fault existed in the constitution 
of the Irish parliament 1 

A. The great number of small boroughs, which 
were under the absolute influence of private indi- 
viduals, and entirely beyond the control of the 
people. The members nominated by these bor- 
oughs, at the dictation of their several patrons, 



140 CATECHISM OF THE 

composed fully two thirds of the house, and were 
necessarily more liable to be corrupted by the 
court than genuine representatives of the people 
could have been. 

Q. Were any efforts made to procure a reform 
of the parliament ? 

A. Yes; in 1783, Mr. Flood introduced a bill 
for that purpose into the commons. But it was 
rejected, through a copious application of court 
influence. 

Q. What instance of English perfidy was ex- 
hibited in 1785? 

A. The Irish commons had granted the min- 
ister new taxes to the amount ,£140,000, on the 
faith of his conceding to Ireland certain commer- 
cial advantages known as " the eleven proposi- 
tions." The minister took the taxes, but, 'instead 
of conceding " the eleven propositions," he intro- 
duced a code of " twenty propositions," injurious 
to Irish commerce, which had been suggested by 
the leading English merchants. 

Q. What was the fate of the twenty English 
propositions 1 

A. They encountered a powerful resistance in 
the Irish house of commons. The government 
were only able to muster a majority of nineteen in 
a very crowded house ; and as there appeared 
every likelihood that this small support would be 
discontinued, the court withdrew the obnoxious 
measure, and the people exhibited their delight 
by extraordinary rejoicings and illuminations. 

Q. What remarkable event occurred in 1789 ? 

A. The king became insane; and the British 
and Irish parliaments concurred in appointing the 
prince of Wales regent during his majesty's 
incapacity. The British parliament fettered the 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 141 

regent in the exercise of the royal authority, but 
the Irish legislature invested him with unlimited 
powers. The king, however, unexpectedly re- 
covered, and resumed the exercise of the execu- 
tive functions. 

Q. How did successive administrations in Ire- 
land thenceforward employ themselves 1 

A. In augmented efforts to corrupt the mem- 
bers of the Irish legislature. 

Q. To what cause do you attribute the amount 
of success that attended those efforts of corrup- 
tion? 

A. To the fact that the Irish parliament was 
unreformed; that it was not sufficiently under the 
wholesome control of the people. 

Q. In what year was the elective franchise 
conceded to the Catholics? 

A. In 1793. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Reign of George the Third continued. 

Q. What was the greatest crime the English 
government ever committed against Ireland ? 

A. The destruction of the Irish parliament, by 
the measure called the legislative Union. 

Q. How did the government achieve that 
measure ? 

A. By goading a large portion of the people 
of Ireland into a premature rebellion, at the ex- 
pense of a vast effusion of blood ; and then, by 
taking advantage of the national weakness, con- 
fusion, and terror, thus created, to overawe the 



142 > CATECHISM OF THE 

people with 137,000 soldiers, and to bribe a ma- 
jority of the members of parliament to vote for the 
Union. 

Q. What steps were taken to goad the people 
to take up arms ? 

A. In 1795 their hopes were excited by the 
arrival of a popular and liberal nobleman, Earl 
Fitzwilliam, who came here as viceroy, with full 
powers, as was currently believed, to carry eman- 
cipation. After a few months, however, he was 
suddenly recalled, and a totally opposite policy 
was pursued under the auspices of his successor, 
Earl Camden. 

Q. State some of the cruelties practised on the 
Catholics at that period. 

A. "A persecution, accompanied with all the 
circumstances of ferocious cruelty, then raged in 
the country. Neither age. nor sex, nor even ac- 
knowledged innocence, could excite mercy. The 
only crime with which the wretched objects were 
charged, was the profession of the Roman Cath- 
olic faith. A lawless banditti constituted them- 
selves judges of this new delinquency, and the 
sentence they pronounced was equally concise 
and terrible. It was nothing less than confisca- 
tion of property, and immediate banishment." 

Q. Whose words have you now repeated ? 

A. The words of Lord Gosford, a Protestant 
nobleman, in his address to the magistracy of 
Armagh, printed in the Dublin Journal, 5th Jan- 
uary, 1796. 

Q. Does Lord Gosford say that any of the 
armed Orange perpetrators of that persecution 
were punished for their crimes? 

A. No; on the contrary he expressly says, in 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 143 

the same address, " These horrors are now acting 
with impunity." 

Q. What other particulars of cruelty against 
the Catholic people are stated by Lord Moira 1 

A. Lord Moira, in his speech in the British 
house of lords, on the 22d of November, 1797, 
uses these words : " I have known a man, in 
order to extort confession of a supposed crime, or 
of that of some neighbor, picketed till he actually 
fainted ; picketed a second time till he fainted 
again ; and when he came to himself picketed a 
third time till he once more fainted, and all this 
upon mere suspicion." 

Q. Does Lord Moira state any other parti- 
culars ? 

A. Yes ; he says that " men had been taken 
and hung up till they were half dead, and after- 
wards threatened with a repetition of this treat- 
ment, unless they made a confession of their 
imputed guilt." 

Q. What important fact does Lord Moira add ? 

A. He expressly says that " these were not 
particular acts of cruelty, but formed part of the 
new system." 

Q. What was the outrage at Carnew? 

A. Twenty-eight men were brought out and 
deliberately murdered by the Orange yeomen and 
a party of the Antrim militia, on the 25th of 
May, 1798. 

Q. How many men were shot without trial at 
Dunlavin ? 

A. Thirty-four. 

Q. What tortures were familiarly practised by 
the yeomanry and soldiery against the people? 

A Whipping, half-hanging, picketing ; the 
hair of some of the victims was cut in the form 



144 CATECHISM OF THE 

of a cross on the crowns of their heads, and the 
hollow thus formed strown with gunpowder, which 
was set fire to, and the process repeated till the 
sufferers fainted. There was also the torture of the 
pitch-cap, which consisted in applying a cap 
smeared with hot pitch to the shorn head of " a 
croppy," and dragging it forcibly off when the 
pitch hardened. The flesh was thus torn from 
the victim's head, and blinding was added to his 
other sufferings, as the melted pitch streamed 
down his forehead into his eyes. The cabins of 
the peasantry were burned, their sons tortured or 
murdered, and their daughters, in many instances, 
brutally violated by the armed demons whom the 
English government poured into the country. 

Q. When did the people of Ireland, thus 
goaded to rise against the government, take the 
field against their oppressors 1 

A. The Kildare and Carlow peasantry com- 
menced the insurrection on the 23d of May, 1798. 

Q. How were they armed? 

A. Wretchedly. Bad guns and pikes were 
their only weapons, and they had little or no 
discipline. Engagements took place with the 
royalists at Naas, Kilcullen, Carlow, (at all which 
towns the insurgents were defeated;) Oulart Hill, 
(where the insurgents were victorious;) Ennis- 
corthy and Wexford, both which towns were taken 
by the insurgents ; Newtownbarry and New Ross. 

Q. Did the insurgents sully their cause with 
cruelties 1 

A.. Unhappily some of them committed out- 
rages, in the heat and turmoil of warfare, which we 
cannot regard without horror ; such, for instance, 
as the burning of a number of royalist Catholics 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 145 

and Protestants in the barn of Scullabogue, in the 
county Wexford. 

Q. What excuse was pleaded by the perpe- 
trators of that crime 1 

A. The massacres committed by the yeomanry 
at Carnew and Dunlavin. Horrible as was the 
conduct of the insurgents in the instance alluded 
to, it must however be owned, that a crime com- 
mitted during the exasperation of a provoked 
rebellion falls far short, in point of demoniac 
atrocity, of the systematic outrages on property, 
liberty, and life, which the government had deli- 
berately sanctioned and encouraged by impunity 
for years ; and which, in fact, had at last stung the 
maddened people to resist their tyrants. 

Q. At what other places were there engage- 
ments between the insurgents and the royalists ? 

A. At Arklow, where the royalists, under 
Colonel Skerrett, gained a victory; at Ballyna- 
hinch, where the rebels gained advantages, by 
their v^alor, which they lost by their total want of 
discipline ; and at Vinegar Hill, where they were 
totally routed by the superior numbers, arms, and 
discipline, of the royal forces. 

Q. Could the government have prevented the 
hideous and sanguinary outrages, and the awful 
waste of human life, which marked the civil war 
of 1798 1 Did they possess sufficient information 
of the rebel plans to enable them to avert the 
explosion of the rebellion? 

A. Yes ; they had in their pay a spy in the camp 
of the insurgents, named M'Guane,who was one of 
the colonels of the United Irishmen. This man 
gave the government constant and minute informa- 
tion of every plan and every movement contem- 
plated by the United Irishmen, for fully ten months 
13 



146 CATECHISM OF THE 

before the insurrection exploded ; so that, at any 
moment during those ten months, the government 
could have crushed the rebellion with the utmost 
ease, by the simple act of arresting the leaders. 

Q. Who were the leaders ? 

A. Lord Edward Fitzgerald, son of the Duke 
of Ieinster; Beauchamp Bagenal Harvey, a Prot- 
estant gentleman of ancient family and good 
estate; Arthur O'Connor of Connorville, county 
Cork; Neilson; M'Nevin, and a long list of 
others, — being about 45 in all, of whom nearly the 
entire were Protestants. 

Q. Why did not the government quietly crush 
the rebellion in its infancy, or rather prevent its 
explosion, and thus avert the horrible destruction 
of human life? 

A. Because its object was to carry the legisla- 
tive Union ; and that could not be done unless the 
country were first thoroughly exhausted by the 
paralyzing influences of terror and mutual distrust 
among its inhabitants, and thereby rendered inca- 
pable of resisting the destruction of its parliament. 

Q. Did the gentry and people make any efforts 
to preserve their parliament? 

A. They did ; their efforts were astonishing, 
when we reflect that the country was under 
martial law, and was occupied by an adverse army 
137,000 strong. They signed petitions against 
the Union, to the number of 707,000 signatures ; 
whilst all the signatures the government could 
obtain in favor of the measure amounted to no 
more than about 3000; — though schools were 
canvassed for the names of their pupils, and jails 
raked for the names of criminals. 

Q. When was the question of Union first 
brought before the Irish parliament? 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 147 

A. In 1799. It was rejected that year by a 
majority of the Irish house of commons. 

Q. What was the conduct of Pitt, and his Irish 
colleague, Castlereagh, on this defeat? 

A. They redoubled their efforts to bribe the 
Irish members during the recess. Peerages, 
bishopricks, seats on the beuch, commands in the 
army and navy, were familiarly given in exchange 
for votes for the Union. One million and a half 
sterling was distributed in money-bribes. There 
was in the lower house a vast preponderance of 
borough members, who were peculiarly accessible 
to the tempter ; of these there were no less than 
116 placemen and pensioners in immediate de- 
pendence on the government. Several members, 
who could not bring themselves to vote for the 
destruction of their native legislature, yet vacated 
their seats for the admission of Englishmen and 
Scotchmen, who readily voted away a parliament 
in the continuance of which they had no sort of 
interest. 

Q. When did that act of national degradation 
and disaster, the legislative Union, receive the 
sanction of the bribed parliament? 

A. In 1800 ; and it came into operation on the 
1st of January, 1801. 

Q. What members particularly distinguished 
themselves in opposition to it ? 

A. Grattan, Plunket, Bushe, Saurin, Foster 
(the speaker), Ponsonby, and Jebb. 

Q. What was the motive which stimulated the 
English government to commit so enormous a 
crime against Ireland as the destruction, by such 
means, of the Irish parliament ? 

A. In the words of Charles Kendal Bushe, the 
motive of the government was " an intolerance 
13* 



148 CATECHISM OF THE 

of Irish prosperity." They hated Ireland with 
intense fierceness, from ancient national preju- 
dice. Pitt also had his own peculiar quarrel 
with the Irish parliament from its opposition 
to his views on the regency question, in 1789; 
and the growth of Ireland in happiness, in great- 
ness, in prosperity, in domestic harmony, and con- 
sequent strength, was altogether insupportable to 
our jealous English foes ; who, accordingly, were 
reckless in the means they used to deprive this 
country of the power, which self-legislation alone 
can afford, of fully promoting its own interests 
and unfolding its own resources. 

Q. What have been the consequences of the 
Union 1 

A. The destruction of numerous branches of 
Irish trade and manufactures; an enormous in- 
crease of the drain of absentee rents, which 
now exceed four millions a year; the drain of 
surplus taxes to the amount of between one and 
two millions annually ; the alienation from Ire- 
land of the affections of the gentry, whom in- 
tercourse with dominant England infects with a 
contempt for their native land ; the scornful 
refusal of Irish rights ; — all which evils are the 
natural consequences of our being governed by 
a foreign parliament, whose members regard with 
apathy at best, and too often with contempt- 
uous hostility, the country thus surrendered to 
their control. 

Q. What is the duty of all Irishmen with re- 
gard to the Union 1 

A. To get rid of it as fast as they can — by all 
legal, peaceful, and constitutional means. 

Q. What were the principal measures affect- 
ing Ireland passed by the imperial parliament 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 149 

during the rest of the reign of George the 
Third? 

A. Chiefly insurrection acts and suspensions 
of the habeas corpus, to put down the disturb- 
ances to which oppression incited the people. 

Q- Was there any fiscal measure passed ? 

A. Yes ; the Irish exchequer was consolidated 
with that of England in 1816. 

Q. What was the result of this consolidation ? 

A. To give the English minister more complete 
control over the taxation of Ireland, and in gen- 
eral over all her fiscal resources. 

Q. What part did the Irish soldiery bear in 
the wars of the allied sovereigns against Bona- 
parte ? 

A. Th^y fought with national bravery for their 
old oppressor, England, in all her campaigns; and 
materially contributed to the victory of Waterloo, 
in 1814. 

Q. In what year did George the Third die ? 

A In 1820. 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

The Reigns of George the Fourth and William 
the Fourth. 

Q. What notable event occurred in 1821 ? 

A. George the Fourth came to Ireland, where 
he spent three weeks in idle pageantry. 

Q. What was the political object of his visit? 

A. To delude the Catholics with empty civili- 
ties in place of substantial concessions. 
13 1 



150 CATECHISM OF THE 

Q. Were the Catholics thus deluded 1 

A. No; Daniel O'Connell, a Catholic barris- 
ter of high eminence, assumed the leadership of 
his fellow-religionists. He founded the Catholic 
Association — which originally consisted of only 
seven members, but soon embraced within its 
circle all the friends of civil and religious liberty 
in the empire. *, 

Q. Was the Catholic Association successful 1 

A. Yes; it combined and organized the peo- 
ple so extensively and so powerfully, that their 
efforts became irresistible ; and O'ConnelFs ex- 
periment of working out a great political change, 
by appeals to public opinion alone, had a signal 
triumph. * 

Q. When was emancipation conceded ? 

A. In April, 1829. 

Q. Who were the leaders of the measure in 
the English parliament ? 

A. Sir Robert Peel in the commons, and the 
duke of Wellington in the lords. 

Q. What declarations did those statesmen 
make? 

A. That their old opinions (which were ad- 
verse to the measure) were unchanged ; but that 
they deemed it expedient to grant it rather than 
risk a civil war. 

Q. What offices and places did emancipation 
throw open to the Catholics ? 

A. All offices in the state excepting only the 
throne, the viceroyalty of Ireland, and the office 
of lord chancellor in both countries. 

Q. In what year did George the Fourth die ? 

A. In 1830, aged 68. 

Q. What events took place in Ireland in the 
reign of William the Fourth ? 



HISTORY OP IRELAND. 161 

A In 1832 there was a resistance, almost 
universal, to the tithe system. Cattle, corn, or 
goods, distrained for tithe, could find no purchas- 
ers ; and the clergy of the Established Church 
were involved in litigation with their parishioners 
all over the kingdom. 

Q. Were other weapons than those of the 
law made use of to enforce the payment of 
tithe 1 

A. Yes; the clergy obtained the assistance 
of the military to distrain the property of the 
people, and to overawe them into obedience. 
Scenes ludicrous as well as deplorable occurred. 
A regiment of hussars was employed in driving 
a flock of twelve geese in the county of Kil- 
kenny. At Newtownbarry, Castlepollard, Car- 
rickshock, InniscaYra, and some other places, there 
were sanguinary affrays between the soldiers and 
the people. 

Q. What occurred at Gurtroe, near Rathcor- 
mac, in the county of Cork 7 

A. Archdeacon Ryder brought a party of 
the military to recover the tithe of a farm 
held by a family named Ryan. The Ryans, 
who were Catholics, resisted the payment of 
tithe to a Protestant pastor, from whom they, 
of course, derived no spiritual benefit. The 
order to fire on the people was given to the mili- 
tary ; and thirteen persons were wounded, and 
eight killed, in the presence of the Rev. Mr. 
Ryder. He was then paid his tithe by Mrs. 
Ryan, whose son was shot before her eyes. 

Q. What changes did parliament make in the 
tithe system 1 

A. It struck off one fourth of the tithes, and 
made the landlords, instead of the occupying ten- 



152 CATECHISM OF THE 

ants, liable to the Established clergy for the re- 
maining three fourths. 

Q. Was this a relief to the tenantry ? 

A. To the extent of one fourth of the tithes, it 
was, doubtless, a relief. With respect to the other 
three fourths, as the landlords are liable to pay 
them to the clergy, they, of course, take care to 
exact them, under the name of rent, from their 
tenantry. 

Q. Was a reform of the house of commons 
carried in this reign? 

A. Yes. 

Q. How far did that reform affect Ireland 1 

A. Ireland got five additional members. She 
had previously sent 100 representatives to the im- 
perial Parliament. 

Q. Did the Irish, in 1832, make any efforts to 
obtain a repeal of the Union ? 

A. Yes ; and about forty members were re- 
turned at the general election in that year pledged 
to support the repeal. Only that the elective 
franchise was unjustly withheld from the people, 
nearly all the constituencies would have returned 
repealers. 

Q. What measure did the first reformed parlia- 
ment enact against Ireland, in 1833 1 

A. A coercion act was passed, laying restric- 
tions on the right of the Irish people to meet and 
petition the legislature. The object of this act 
was to crush the movement for repeal ; which na- 
tional measure was denounced in a foolish and 
ferocious speech delivered by the king on opening 
the session. 

Q. How did Mr. O'Connell, in his place in par- 
liament, designate the king's speech? 

A. He called it " a brutal and a bloody speech." 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 153 

Q. Was repeal brought before the British house 
of commons ? 

A. Yes ; by O'Connell, in 1834. He was op- 
posed by Spring Rice, who attempted to show that 
Ireland had been improved by the destruction of 
her parliament ; and as Mr. Rice's paradox was 
congenial to the prejudices of his audience, 
O'ConnelFs motion was defeated, for the time, by 
an immense majority. 

Q. Did that defeat discourage the Irish people ? 

A. Not in the least. They knew their cause 
was just and righteous, and they determined to 
wait, and work, and watch their opportunity. 

Q. What was O'Connell's parliamentary policy ? 

A. To act as if he placed faith in the conjoint 
promise made by the king, lords, and commons, 
in rejecting his motion for repeal. They had 
solemnly promised to remove all the grievances of 
Ireland ; and accordingly O'Connell, for the next 
six years, occupied himself in the experiment of 
extorting a fulfilment of that solemn pledge from 
the British legislature. 

Q. In what year did William the Fourth die ? 

A. In 1837. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

The Reign of Queen Victoria. 

Q. What was the policy of the national party 
in Ireland for the first three years of this reign ? 

A. They continued to pursue the experiment 
of trying what amount of justice was to be ob- 
tained from the imperial parliament. 

Q. What was the result of their experiment ? 



154 CATECHISM OF THE 

A. Increased evidence of the hostility of that 
parliament to Ireland ; and of the paramount 
necessity of obtaining a free, popular Irish legis- 
lature. 

Q. What important event occurred in 1840 1 

A. The Loyal National Repeal Association was 
founded by O'Conneli in that year, for the purpose 
of obtaining a repeal of the Union. 

Q. Did the agitation for repeal extend itself 
quickly over the kingdom 1 

A. Yes ; as soon as O'Connell's perseverance 
had finally convinced the people that he was 
thoroughly resolved to fight out the peaceful battle 
to the last, and not to use the repeal-cry as a mere 
instrument to obtain other measures. 

Q. What efforts did the government make to 
preserve the Union ? 

A. Efforts quite in character with those which 
Pitt's government had made use of to carry it, in 
1800. They deemed that, as it had been originally 
achieved by bribery and terror, it could best be 
preserved by the same means. Accordingly, Lord 
Fortescue, the Whig lord lieutenant in 1841, an- 
nounced that anti-repealers only should be admitted 
to any place or office in the gift of the government ; 
and in 1843, troops were poured into the country, 
and state prosecutions instituted against nine of 
the leaders, in the hope that the display of military 
power, conjoined with the harassing prosecution 
of the legal proceedings, might terrify the people 
from seeking their national rights. 

Q. What military struggle occurred in the 
English colonies in 1841-2 1 

A. England was engaged in the attempt to 
extend and consolidate her Indian empire; and 
Irish soldiers, as is usual in such cases, fought and 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 155 

bled in the contest. The 44th regiment, consist- 
ing entirely of Irish, was totally destroyed. 

Q. Of what use were England's Indian con- 
quests to Ireland 1 

A. Of no use whatever. Ireland had no inter- 
est whatsoever in the event of the struggle. 

Q. Did the English ministry enlist Queen 
Victoria's influence against the repealers of 
Ireland ? 

A. They did ; and a speech, denouncing re- 
peal, was composed for the queen, which her 
majesty read from the throne at the close of the 
session of 1843. The ministry hoped that the 
well-known loyalty of the Irish people would in- 
duce them to abandon a measure distasteful to 
their beloved monarch. 

Q. What effect had this ministerial manoeuvre 
on the national policy of the Irish? 

A. It deeply grieved the people to see the 
amiable young lady on the throne made the tool 
and mouth-piece of a faction opposed to their lib- 
erties ; but the queen's mistake on the subject of 
repeal could, of course, have no effect on the 
national resolve of millions suffering the bitter 
evils of the Union. Their sentiment was pre- 
cisely the same as that which was expressed by 
the Dungannon volunteers in 1779 : " We know 
our duty to our sovereign, and are loyal ; but we 
also know our duty to ourselves, and are deter- 
mined to be free." 

Q. What violent measures did the government 
take, to suppress the agitation for repeal ? 

A. The lord lieutenant (Earl De Grey) 
issued a proclamation to prevent a public meeting, 
to petition parliament for repeal, which was ad- 
vertised to he held at CleaUrf en the 3th of Oc- 



156 CATECHISM OF THE 

tober, 1843 ; and at which a large number from 
great distances, and even from England, had pre- 
pared to attend. The viceregal proclamation was 
issued at so late an hour on the 7th, that it was 
perfectly impossible to convey the knowledge of 
its contents to tens of thousands who were actually 
at the moment on their journey to the meeting. 

Q. What additional measures did the govern- 
ment take 1 

A. A large military force was stationed in the 
neighborhood, so disposed as to command, from 
several points, the place intended for the meeting. 

Q. Did the people obey the proclamation 1 

A. Yes ; owing to the prompt energy of the 
Repeal Committee, who felt it their bounden duty 
to prevent a hostile collision ; and who accord- 
ingly sent messengers in all directions to enjoin 
the people to return to their homes. 

Q. When were the leaders of the repeal 
movement prosecuted? 

A. The prosecution was commenced in the 
November term, 1843. 

Q. Name the traversers. 

A. Daniel O'Connell, John O'Connell, Thomas 
Steele, Charles Gavan Duffy (editor of the Nation), 
John Gray (editor of the Freeman's Journal), 
Richard Barret (editor of the Pilot), Rev. Mr. Tyr- 
rell, P. P. of Lusk, Rev. Mr. Tierney, P. P. of 
Clontibret, and Thomas Matthew Ray, the secre- 
tary of the Repeal Association. The Rev. Mr. 
Tyrrell died before the close of the prosecution, 
and the verdict against the Rev. Mr. Tierney was 
overruled by the bench. 

Q. How did the government secure a con- 
viction ? 

A. By excluding from the jury-box everv man 



HISTORY OF IRELAND. 157 

who did not entertain political hostility to the 
defendants. The management of the jury-list was 
pronounced by the Tory chancellor of England 
(Baron Lyndhurst) to have been "fraudulent" 

Q. Were the seven traversers imprisoned on 
the verdict of the jury? 

A. Yes, on the 30th of May, 1844. 

Q. Did their fate deter the Irish people from 
further exertions for repeal ? 

A. Of course it did not ! On the contrary, 
the people, indignant at the outrage committed 
on their leaders under the forms of law, immedi- 
ately began to work with augmented energy; 
there was an immense increase of the Repeal 
Rent, and a large number of new adhesions to the 
Repeal Association. 

Q. What length of imprisonment was adjudged 
to the traversers ? 

A. One year to Daniel O'Connell ; and nine 
months to the others. 

Q. Did they suffer the full term of their sen- 
tence ? 

A. No ; they appealed by writ of error to the 
house of lords, and that tribunal reversed the 
judgment of the court below. The prisoners were 
forthwith discharged, having been imprisoned for 
over three months. 

Q. How many members of the house of lords 
formed the tribunal that decided the appeal in this 
case? 

A. The five law lords — Lyndhurst, Brougham, 
Cottenham, Campbell, Denman. The first two 
were for confirming the sentence ; the last three 
for reversing it. 

Q. What were Lord Denman's words in giving 
judgment ? 



158 CATECHISM, &c. 

A. "If such practices as have taken 

PLACE IN THE PRESENT INSTANCE IN IRELAND 
SHALL CONTINUE, THE TRIAL BY JURY WILL 
BECOME A MOCKERY, A DELUSION, AND A SNARE." 

Q. On what day were the prisoners liberated? 

A. On the 6th of September, 1844. 

Q. What qualities characterized the Irish 
people during the entire crisis — the trial, the 
imprisonment, the liberation 1 

A. The utmost steadiness and determination 
of purpose, combined with a careful abstinence 
from all violent and exasperating language. 
There never was a nation that more fully devel- 
oped its own capacity for self-government than 
the Irish did at that very trying crisis. The 
people and their leaders are pledged to persevere. 
The issue of their struggle is in the hands of God ; 
but if the thorough justice of a cause, and the 
perfect morality of the means employed in its 
promotion, may command success, the final tri- 
umph of Repeal can neither be distant nor 
doubtful. 



FINIS. 



159 

O'CONNELL AND HIS FRIENDS. 

BY THOMAS D. M'GEE. 

This popular work has already gone through 
two editions. It is published by Patrick Don- 
ahoe, No. 1, Spring Lane. 

OPINIONS OF THE PRESS. 

" It treats principally of Daniel O'Connell, and sketches off 
the great man with accuracy and eloquence ; but there are in 
it lively sketches of many others, such as Sheil, Lawless, Dr. 
Doyle, Moore, Furlong, etc. Its appearance in America, 
written and published by an Irishman, is a healthy indication." 
— Boston Reporter. 

" We warmly commend it to the public as a faithful biogra- 
phy of an important class of public men — the Irish ' Agitators.' 
It is remarkable for the multiplicity of its facts, the eloquence 
of its descriptions of men and events, and the orthodoxy of its 
general reflections on politics and government." — Boston 
Times. 

" The author is, of course, strongly in arms for O'Connell ; 
but we may mention that his volume contains numerous anec- 
dotes of the leading men of Ireland, which are very interesting, 
and not to be found elsewhere." — Boston Post. 

" It is a volume which should be in the hands of every man 
who values human rights, and feels it a national duty to do 
honor to the noble spirits who have battled fearlessly in the 
cause of humanity and their country." — Phil. Spirit of the 
Times. 

"It is written with much care, talent, and variety of illustra- 
tion. We wish it every success." — N. Y. Freeman's Journal. 

" It is well executed, and will be found a valuable reference 
in relation to the character and doings of an important person- 
age, and to the present condition and future prospects of a far- 
famed and oppressed people." — Christian Freeman. 

" To those who feel an interest in this very extraordinary 
man, this work is of great value, as it gives a strong picture of 
O'Connell and his friends, viewed from the most favorable 
point. Mr. M'Gee shows much tact and considerable talent 
in this work." — Olive Branch. 

" It is from the pen of Thomas D. M'Gee, a popular and ele- 
gant writer." — Troy Daily Budget. 



160 



THE SPANISH INQUISITION. 

Count Le Maistre's celebrated " LETTERS 
ON THE SPANISH INQUISITION ; " trans- 
lated, with copious Notes and a Preface, by the 
Rev. Dr. O'Flaherty, Catholic Pastor of Salem, 
Mass. For sale by the Publisher, P. Donahoe, 
No. 1, Spring Lane. _ 



THE SPIRIT OF THE NATION. 

P. Donahoe has also issued a cheap and accu- 
rate edition of these far-famed national lyrics of 
Ireland, which may be had, at the usual wholesale 
prices, of himself or agents. 



THE BOSTON PILOT 

Is published at No. 1 Spring Lane, by Patrick 
Donahoe, at $2,50, in advance, or $3 at the end 
of the year. It is the largest .and cheapest paper 
of the class in America, and is devoted to Catho- 
licity, and a defence of the Irish character. 







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